Paradoxial
by SchmEthan
Summary: The Doctor turns up on the Great Fox, and the Star Fox team are fascinated by his time travelling technology. But when strange behaviour is recorded in and around Solar, the team and the Time Lord decide to investigate...
1. The TARDIS Has Landed

SchmEthan here:

ALRIGHT, as I said in the most recent chapter (11), I'm gonna go through and fix all of my past poor writing and general sloppiness to make this fic a little more readable! I might even have a full story, eventually = O

For those who are just joining us, HELLO! Welcome to my wonderful StarFox/Doctor Who crossover! I hope you enjoy it = D

SchmEthan.

* * *

The Doctor sighed. It was a deep sigh. A deep sigh of longing and regret.

He sat on the floor of the TARDIS, his legs dangling out with nothing but space below them. The spaceship was protecting him the vacuum and the sub zero temperatures of space. He looked out over the Medusa Cascade, the beautiful shades of red and purple melting together to lattice the skies with colour. It was this very place, not long ago, where he had encountered the Daleks, yet again, as well their lord and creator, Davros. Of course, he had not done it alone. His friends and allies that had gained his trust over all those years were there to help him.

Martha had worked for the army. When the Doctor arrived, she supplied vital information about the Daleks and the forces of Earth.

Sarah-Jane used her supercomputer and her inhumanly intelligent foster-son to bring the Doctor back to Earth.

Captain Jack used his Torchwood facilities to amplify the subwave signal that called the Doctor to action.

Donna, fused with the Doctor's dismembered hand, the regenerative energy converting the hand into a human resembling the Doctor himself, and Donna into a half-Time Lord. She was the reason that everyone made it out alive. That the universe, and time itself, made it out alive.

And Rose. She did the impossible. She came back from a sealed dimension where the Doctor thought he'd lost her forever. And she did her fair share of blowing the Daleks up.

But they were gone. All of them.

"Rose..." he whispered to himself. His human counterpart was now in the company of Rose in that parallel world. The Doctor loved Rose, something that he could never fully admit to himself. Now that she had a mortal man to spend the rest of her days with, the Doctor was alone. Again.

But still, he smiled slightly. He knew that all of his past companions, and friends, were safe and happy. The Doctor had several ambitions, but his main goal, his purpose, was to make EVERYONE happy.

He heard a small 'ping' from the central console inside the TARDIS. With a grunt, he heaved himself up, the doors of the ship squeaking slightly as he closed them. Tthe metal walkway beneath his feet clanged as he made his way towards the column in the very heart of the TARDIS. The small screen suspended above the control panel displayed what looked like a grid of some sort, with a small red dot flashing in the far right corner of the screen.

_So, what have we here then? t_he Doctor thought. He pressed a few buttons on the keyboard and some text and charts appeared. He withdrew his glasses from the inside pocket of his jacket and put them on. His brown eyes widened as he tried to grasp the full extent of what he was reading. According to the readings from the TARDIS, there was a distress signal being transmitted from the planet Nostallas.

_Nostallas, eh? Haven't been there in a while..._ He studied the information carefully and discovered that the problem was something to do with Omega radiation from a star in the Heragunet system that was starting to kill the planet's harvest crops.

The Doctor thought for a moment, rubbing his chin in the process. _Shall I? Should I?_

A grin shot across his face.

He raced around the TARDIS's console, pressing buttons and flicking switches and turning knobs and pumping pumps. He loved every second of it. He was off on another trip, saving another planet. Making people happy. Once his pre-travel preparations were complete, the Doctor placed his hand on the ignition lever on the control panel. He cocked his head, pulled the lever and yelled at the top of his voice "Allons-y!"

The central column began to glow and slide up and down within its container, thrusting the TARDIS into full speed travel towards Nostallas. The ship swayed and jolted in the time stream, but the Doctor was loving every minute of it. The TARDIS was his home now, and the universe was his oyster. Everything seemed to be going fine, until something appeared on the screen of the console. Something was following him through the time vortex.

The Doctor laughed at this pathetic being. "Think you can just hitch a ride with me? I think NOT! Ha ha!" He slammed his hand down on a rather ominous looking button and slid out of the time stream. He grinned in victory as the blip had disappeared from his radars.

The grin was short lived, however, as the thing chose to rip from the time stream rather than slip from it. It was a small breach, and it was instantly self-repaired, but the 'blip' was now surrounded by what the Doctor liked to call 'void stuff'. The 'blip' itself looked like an oversized bug, but strangely enough it was a machine. It had one large pink eye at the top of its body. The Doctor's face turned cold as he realised the danger of this situation.

_That thing's gotta have a lock on the TARDIS and be able to read all the processes to be able to follow me from the time stream, and now that it has it's covered in void stuff. If it hits the TARDIS at that speed, it'll blow the core wide open!_

The TARDIS began its flight again, but through space this time. He couldn't risk any more breaches in the vortex. The Doctor was frantically pressing buttons and switches, trying to shake the thing from his tail. "Come on, come on! Think, think!"

A flash of inspiration sent a spark to the Time Lord's eyes. Without hesitating, he set the controls to random and gritted his teeth. "Here we go!"

He yanked upon the start lever just as the 'thing' was about to collide with him It felt like the TARDIS was trying to go in two directions at once. The ship shot through the now static time stream before the 'thing' could follow it. The Doctor was holding on to the console tightly and checking his radars. The machine was nowhere to be seen.

The Doctor pulled himself upright and checked the readings. He was clear of any danger, to which he laughed. "I'm brilliant. I really am."

He paused for a moment as he realised that he hadn't the faintest idea where he was. The Doctor punched in a few commands on the keyboard which brought up his location. I

_Lylat? Hmm, Lylat... Lylat, Lylat, Lylat, Lylat... _

The Doctor turned his attention back to the readings on the screen. "Huh?" he asked himself after seeing that he was in fact in the middle of space on the map, but also on solid ground. _Space station maybe?_

He jogged over to the door of the TARDIS, grabbing his overcoat on the way. _Only one way to find out!_

He opened the door and inquisitively stuck his head out. His surroundings looked like that of a space station; he was in the middle of a silent hallway with several doors running along its length. He stepped outside, locked the TARDIS and began to wander around with his hands in his pockets.

A sigh escaped his mouth. It felt strange exploring once more without an accomplice by his side. He came to what looked like an elevator at the end of the corridor. There was no call button, but that didn't stop him. He withdrew Sonic Screwdriver from his pocket and pointed it at the control panel, the blue light glowing and the buzzing sound piercing the silence.

Within a few seconds the lift had arrived on the floor that the Doctor was waiting on. The doors opened with a swish and the Time Lord stepped inside. A quick inspection of the control panel with the Sonic Screwdriver revealed that the bridge was on the third floor, which he then selected. He watched as the number on the lift wall went from 5 to 4 to 3, and stepped out from the doors as soon as they opened. Directly in front of him stood an orange anthropomorphic fox with a cup of coffee in his hand, wearing a mildly shocked expression.

The Doctor spoke to the vulpine without delay. "Oh, hi there! This is a nice place you've got here. Looks like it was taken right of of the 33rd Century. But with fewer paintings of cheese" mused the Doctor, cheerfully. The orange-furred humanoid in front of him tried to speak, but he couldn't seem to form any words.

The Doctor simply chuckled. "Lost for words? You've probably never seen something quite like me before."

To the Doctor's surprise, the vulpine replied rather swiftly. "It's not so much that," said the vulpine, "I'm just wondering how the hell you got on the ship."

"Oh, yes! Sorry about that, see I was just trying to escape something, picked a random location and off I went. I supposed I arrived here by accident"

The vulpine didn't seem to comprehend. His face simply grew more confused.

"I'll try and explain later." insisted the Doctor. "I'm the Doctor by the way." he announced, presenting his hand. "And you are?"

The vulpine raised his paw and nervously shook the Doctor's hand.

"Uh, I'm Fox. Fox McCloud. And, sorry, Doctor who?"

"Just the Doctor. I get a lot of that, actually. Where are we, then? Somewhere in Lylat I believe?"

"Wait, you landed _inside _my ship and you still don't know where you are?"

"Nope. I told you, the controls were random! But right now, I'd just like to know three things. One, where we are. Two, what's going on. Three, where the mirror is. I think I've ruined my hair after that chase."

"Uh, OK. Well, follow me to the bridge, we can check from there. And yes, there's a mirror."

Fox, seemingly calmer now, led the way and the Doctor followed behind, thinking over a few things in his head.

_So, this system's probably full of furries, and judging by Fox's reaction, no-one even looks like a human._

Fox tapped a panel on the wall to open the door to the bridge. He tapped it again, stopping the door with just enough room to peek through.

"If the other guys see you, they'll freak out! Well, Krystal might not be as surprised, she's seen more weird and wonderful stuff than I have." The Doctor raised an eyebrow slightly when he noticed Fox's fur turn a slightly darker shade of orange, like a blush. _So, he seems to react to this Krystal. I'll remember that. _When Fox was confident that there was nobody around to witness the stranger in their midst, he tapped the control panel again, allowing the door to slide open the full way. The Doctor's eyes widened as he observed the machinery and equipment on the bridge. "Impressive stuff there, Fox!"

"Thanks. State of the art too; this ship's only a few months old."

The Doctor took a stroll around all the computers and consoles in front of him.

"Nice. So tell me, Fox McCloud, what exactly is it you're doing up here in..." he glanced over at a map screen and read its contents. "Katina's spacial territory?"

"It's a relatively unused sector of space. We're lying low until another mission crops up. We're a team of mercinaries, you see."

The Doctor sat down in a chair as the side of the bridge. "Ooh! Mercenaries! Sounds exciting! Do tell!"

Fox took his usual place in the captain's seat and began his story. "Well, it started about twenty years ago..."

While the two were talking about Fox's past, Krystal was sitting on her bed, frozen. She had sensed another being on the ship as soon as he landed, but judging by his aura, his essence, she felt that he meant no harm. Which was perfectly true. Another thing that she noticed about this stranger was that he had incredibly strong mental defences; she couldn't even sense his thought patterns, let alone his memories. He wasn't from Lylat, or even Cerinia, which disturbed Krystal somewhat. _Where is he from? How did he get here? Is he going to hurt us?_

_... What is that? Ape? ...Bald ape? Hey wait! How'd he get here? Nobody boarded us!_

"Be careful, Fox!" she half-whispered.

Krystal waited anxiously, reading Fox's mind the whole time. Her nervousness on Fox's part was quelled slightly when she sensed that Fox was conversing happily with the being, but she wasn't completely satisfied.

_Right. I'm coming to set this straight, whoever you are!_

She shot to her feet, gracefully stormed from her bedroom and hustled towards the bridge to meet the stranger.


	2. Like Minded

_10 minutes before the Doctor arrived:_

Fox sighed. It was the kind of sigh you get when somebody likes someone. Or loves someone. Someone in particular.

The vulpine lay face up on his bed with his arms by his side. He was thinking; running over the past few years' events in his head. Two years ago, he saved Krystal from an evil General and from a fall to her death. He distinctly remembered the very moment that she boarded the Great Fox. He found her exceedingly beautiful, that much was obvious from his reactions to her. He blushed. And stuttered. And ROB didn't help much by pointing it out. Yet, Krystal simply giggled. Fox still didn't know what she was thinking, or indeed what she thought of him.

During the following year, Fox and Krystal grew much closer, although they were still just good friends. Even still, Fox couldn't help but blush every time the pair came close to each other, but this posed new problems for Fox. Of course, this reaction to Krystal came not without jibes and taunts from his fellow team members, Falco in particular. Falco seized every opportunity to poke fun at the vulpine, often referring to him as a tomato. Fox wasn't best pleased by this; he was sure that Krystal wouldn't think much of him now. Thus, he usually avoided contact with the vixen when anyone else was around.

Then the Aparoid invasion came. Fox and Krystal didn't have much time to talk, except over the comms while in battle. There was one exception to this lack of contact: their on-foot mission to Sauria, where they came across Fox's one-time dinosaur assistant, Prince Tricky. After being posed a question about himself and Krystal honeymooning on Tricky's planet, Fox once again tripped on his words. And, as ever, Krystal laughed. To this day, Fox was still not sure whether it was a 'yeah, right' laugh, or an 'aww, poor him' laugh on Krystal's part. And he still didn't know whether she liked him or not.

Fox's first impressions of Krystal were high, based solely upon her physical appearance. However, after she joined the team, Fox began to take a liking to Krystal's personal qualities. She was kind, caring, thoughtful, gentle, sweet. It was for these reasons that Fox McCloud had grown to love Krystal. In the vulpine's eyes, she was the most perfect vixen in the whole of Lylat.

_But what does she think of me?_

.:.

Krystal sat at the dining area table, cradling a mug of coffee in her paws. Coffee always seemed to calm her down, although she could never figure out why. At the moment, her thoughts were a bit jumbled up. She had a lot on her mind, and it didn't really help that she had no control over the flow of emotions that she sensed from other people.

One word, however, rang through her head, its pealing clearly audible over everything else.

_Fox..._

Like Fox, her thoughts were occupied with her friend and team-mate who she had grown so close to recently. In fact, she too had her doubts about the mindset of Fox: she was worried that Fox was avoiding her. She noticed that he seemed to enjoy her company, but would steer clear of her almost entirely when Falco, or Slippy, or Peppy came along. Since the entirety of Cerinia's population was telepaths, no secret was safe in one's mind. She was still getting used to the fact that she could think to herself without a soul hearing. As well as this, Krystal was completely new to the concept of blushing. From what she gathered, blushes were a product of someone's embarrassment. Unfortunately, embarrassment didn't exist on Cerinia either, and so Krystal could never tell what Fox was embarrassed about. There was but one question she wanted to ask him, concerning his evasion of her. _Why?_

The obvious solution to this question would be for Krystal to use her telepathic talents to browse his mind and find the answer herself. However, there were a few things preventing her from doing this: it was her own personal rule that she would never delve into someone's mind without their permission, unless absolutely necessary, and even if she tried to, Fox's mental defences were far too strong.

A good mental defence consists of concentrated emotion, a primary part of the frontal lobe, and Fox's emotions were flooding thick and fast from his mind. It was not so much a concentrated wall of emotion, more an immense flood of it. The force was so great that Krystal could just about read his conscious thoughts, but his memories were sealed safely away. However, she noticed that this blockade of emotion only seemed to spout from Fox whenever he was near to or thinking about her.

When Krystal had drained the last of her coffee, she carefully rose from the table, walked into the kitchen, rinsed and dried her mug and made her way down the hallway to her quarters. All the while thinking of the one man who had changed her life. She paused just outside Fox's room and thought for a moment.

_Maybe I should just talk to him about it..._

She decided that this was the right course of action and politely knocked on the door. A few seconds later, a low growling was heard, followed by shuffling and some pawsteps. The door opened with a swoosh and a groggy Fox's emerald eyes widened when he saw the vixen standing outside his door. "Oh... uh... H-hi Krys!". He cursed himself for blushing, but he knew that he couldn't help it.

Even though Krystal could tell that Fox was tired, he still managed a smile. He always smiled at her; it was this little detail that sustained her belief that Fox cared. Although, she still couldn't quite grasp the meaning behind his blushing.

"You feeling OK, Fox? You look a bit groggy."

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine, I'm fine." The vulpine yawned and then said "Here, come on in. If I don't lie down soon, I'm probably gonna fall over."

Krystal couldn't help but giggle at the comment. Fox swivelled around to face Krystal before falling backwards onto his bed. As he propped himself up against the headboard, Krystal sat opposite him on the bed. She was still laughing at the concept of Fox falling over

"I know, I'm too funny for my own good," Fox said with a smirk.

She grinned at him. "Ha! You wish!"

"And what's that supposed to mean?" asked Fox in a playful manner.

"You couldn't come up with a decent joke to save your life!" The vixen proceeded to flick him gently on the nose.

"Hey!" he exclaimed, rubbing his nose with his paw. "That wasn't very nice!"

"Aww! Can't take it, Fox? What would Falco think if I told him you were beaten by a girl?"

By now, Fox was blushing vigorously, and he was somewhat paranoid that Krystal might actually tell Falco. But he wasn't having any of it. In one sleek move, he leaned forward and poked Krystal's sides, just above her hips. He knew she was ticklish, and he often used this knowledge to his advantage.

Krystal fell over sideways on the bed, giggling insanely. Fox withdrew his paws from Krystal's delicate waist, folded his arms and nodded his head in pride.

When she finally recovered from her laughing fit, the vixen sat upright to face Fox once more, grabbing his wrists so that he couldn't tickle her again. "Oh, I don't think you've won just yet!"

"Alright, 1-0 to me, but I need my half time coffee break, or I'll never wake up!" He wriggled free from Krystal's grasp and stood up defiantly.

"OK, Fox, go and drink your silly coffee. But I'll be ready when you come back! In fact, I'm gonna go to my room right now and get ready!"

"You really are taking this seriously aren't you?"

"Nobody gets the better of me, Fox!"

"Oh, we'll see! Well, I'll be right back."

Fox offered his paw to Krystal and he pulled the vixen up off the bed and the two walked out of Fox's room and went their separate ways. Krystal sneakily spun round, a sly grin on her face, and pulled Fox's tail as he was facing the other direction. He yelped, which caused Krystal to burst out laughing. Her eyes grew in size as he turned around and reached out slowly towards her.

"You sneaky little-"

He stopped suddenly as he saw Falco turn around the corner. Fox realised something rather important. He did, in fact, look like he was about to grab Krystal rather inappropriately.

Krystal, having the kind, innocent soul she did, saw no such implications. She noticed Fox's interruption and turned to see what was causing it. Her heart sank when she saw the avian observing the scene, trying not to laugh. Now that Falco was here, Fox would more than likely run away.

"So... uh... yeah, I'm... uh... going to get some coffee."

Without another word, Fox wheeled around and briskly walked towards the Great Fox's kitchen. _Dammit, dammit, dammit, DAMMIT! Why does he have to do that?_

Sadness and confusion filled Krystal's mind. _He's ashamed of me, I just know it._ The tone of her thoughts was reflected on her face as her smile slowly melted into a sad expression.

The cause of the situation chose to speak. "You'd better watch out for him. He's a nasty one!" Falco joked.

Krystal rested her paws on her hips as she replied. "Well, you might want to sort yourself out. Apparently, Fox is too scared to even look at you!" she teased back..

Falco couldn't help but chuckle. "Yeah. Scared of me. Sure you're not just trying to shift the blame there?" Before the stunned vixen could respond, Falco strutted off down the corridor in the same general direction as Fox. "Oh, and next time you see Fox, tell him he looks like a right tomato!"

Krystal sighed before replying. "Yeah, I will."

She shuffled back into her room and sat down on the edge of her bed, a soft whimper escaping her mouth.

_Why?_

.:.

_Why does Falco have to do that?_

The only reason that Fox chose to avoid Krystal around the company of Falco was that the bird would constantly annoy him about the matter, which Fox found very demeaning. _I need to be completely alone with her. Just her and me. Only for a while._

Fox flicked the switch on the coffee machine, and a few seconds later, the hot, brown liquid was in his cup ready for serving. He picked it up gratefully and began to sip at it. His thoughts kept returning to the blue vixen who had quickly become one of his closest friends.

_Krystal, I'm pretty sure I love you, but do you love me?_

He sighed once more before leaving the kitchen and wandering out into the main hallway. He noticed the numbers on the lift changing from 5 to 4 to 3.

_Hang on, _he realised, _if Krystal and Falco are in the bedrooms, Peppy's downstairs in the rec room and Slippy's over at the garage, then who's that?_

His questions were answered soon enough by a strange looking character. Fox couldn't quite figure out why he had so much hair on the top of his head compared with the rest of his body.

_..... What is that? Ape? ...Bald ape? Hey wait! How'd he get here? Nobody boarded us!_


	3. Star Fox: A History

Fox took a sip of his coffee before recounting the history of Star Fox. "My dad, James McCloud, joined together with two of the best Arwing pilots in Lylat and formed a team of mercenaries. Arwings are fighter jets by the way. To this day, the team is still called Star Fox. I was told that it was named after me, but dad never said it himself. Anyway, go back about twenty years and out of the blue, this guy called Andross started conducting experiments for-"

If the Doctor's eyes could have widened any more, they would have. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on there! Did you say Andross?"

Fox raised an eyebrow at this remark. "Yes. I've fought him twice. And won, too!" He gave the Doctor a cocky grin, while the Time Lord was still racking his brains to figure out why the name meant something to him.

"Andross... Andross, Andross, Andross." The Doctor forced his fingers through his hair as he tried to find some sort of hint. "Nope. Sorry, thought I knew him. Carry on."

"Everyone in Lylat knows him! He almost destroyed the entire system on three different occasions."

The Doctor looked up to meet Fox's eyes. "Really? Three times! He must be some kind of mental... What was his job before trying to rule Lylat?"

Fox sighed slightly. "As I was saying, he conducted experiments for the Cornerian Government. Unfortunately, he accidentally blew a huge chunk out of a Government building, killing hundreds of people. After that, his sanity just jumped out the window. General Pepper, head of the Cornerian Army, exiled him to Venom. It's a kind of taboo at the other end of Lylat. And then for ten years or so, nothing much happened there. But then some weird stuff started happening and General Pepper sent my dad out to investigate. One of the guys dad worked with was called Pigma Dengar, and as soon as they arrived in Venom, he betrayed them and shot... shot my father down. And I was only eight at the time." Fox's lower lip quivered slightly, but he shook his sorrow off, wanting to appear strong in front of this new visitor.

Fox sorrow was reflected on the Doctor's face. He always felt the same emotions as anyone around him. It was part of being a Time Lord. At times, it was a gift, but at times like these, it was a curse. "I'm sorry, Fox. I know what it's like to be betrayed by someone you trusted." He quickly changed the subject a little. "The third pilot of Star Fox, you said there were three. What happened to him?"

"The third pilot is still part of the team now. Peppy Hare, he was one of my dad's best friends and since I lost my mum in a car bomb a few years before dad went missing, he raised me. He's like a father to me now, always has been. You'll probably meet him later."

The Doctor nodded, half solemnly. "So, what happened to Andross then?"

"Well, eventually we found out that Andross offered thousands of credits to Pigma to betray my dad. Ultimately, everything to do with the Lylat Wars was because of Andross. So when he started attacking Lylat again, we watched his actions carefully. 'We' being the new Star Fox team, with Falco Lombardi, an awesome pilot, Slippy Toad, the technician, and old Peppy. But Pepper wouldn't let us intervene, so we had to watch as Lylat was taken over. He had taken control of all the planets from Venom to Katina. The only planet that he hadn't visited yet was Corneria, and then the General realised that he needed our help. We joined in the war and ended up flying across the whole of Lylat just to get to Venom. Eventually, I managed to take him down. On my own."

The Doctor shot him a questioning look. "Why? You had a whole team of trained mercenaries behind you, and you went in there by yourself?"

Fox understood what the Doctor was saying, but folded his arms and continued. "I wanted to destroy Andross after what he did to my dad. On my own. Unfortunately, he'd experimented on himself so much that he had mutated into a giant floating brain thing with two floating eyes."

The Doctor interrupted by pointing his finger in the air. "Morbius." mused the Doctor. "He was reduced to a brain once. But Sarah-Jane stopped him." A dazed smile smeared across his face. "Good old Sarah-Jane." With that, he promptly sat upright. "Anyway, carry on!"

"Yeah..." muttered Fox, somewhat confused. "But yeah, I took him down, and he sort of exploded. But then the impossible happened."

"Believe me; nothing's impossible," assured the Doctor, "anything can happen if you really want it to."

Fox wasn't so sure. "My father appeared and led me out of Venom. At least, I think he did. He talked to me through the comms unit."

The Doctor smiled reassuringly. "Then it probably was him."

"But," retaliated Fox, "as soon as I reached the surface of Venom, he was gone!"

"That is a bit weird, but I reckon I've seen weirder. Anything else interesting happened in your life?"

Fox thought for a moment. "Well, for about seven years after the Wars, we just drifted from job to job. They were small jobs, and we weren't really making much money to repair the damage done to the Great Fox. But then Falco and I had a row and he left the team. The year after that, we were sent on a massive job to Sauria, a planet ruled by talking dinosaurs. It was weird."

The Time Lord had a look of disbelief on his face. "Dinosaur Planet?"

Now it was Fox's turn to be surprised. "That's what it used to be called. Have you heard of it?"

The Doctor leaned forwards on his chair. "Heard of it? I helped save it! Years ago, my people helped the dinosaurs make SpellStone thingies and put them into Force Points on the planet to stop it ripping itself apart."

Fox's jaw plummeted. "That was my mission! The planet was falling apart and I had to find the SpellStones and put them back in the Force Point temples! Wait, if you put the SpellStones there in the first place, why didn't you fix it again?"

Solemnity veiled the Doctor's face. "My people... lost contact with the planet. I'll tell you later. So, what happened?"

"I eventually put all the SpellStones back, but the planet was still floating apart. Turned out I needed to return all six Krazoa spirits to the Krazoa Palace."

The mention of the Palace brought a smile back to the Time Lord. "Ah, Krazoa Palace. I designed the defence mechanisms in there y'know!"

Fox thought he might have a little joke with the Doctor. "Well, thanks a lot. They certainly worked, and made my job about ten times as hard."

The Doctor laughed sheepishly. "Heh... heh... sorry about that. But, my friend, he called himself the Judge, was the real mastermind behind the Palace. If the Krazoa Spirits were in any way endangered in the Palace, the Judge's escape routes would take them safely to their Shrines. And together, we came up with some tests that you have to pass in order to get the Spirit."

"I should know," Fox interrupted, "I passed five of them!"

The Doctor grinned. "No way! How did they go? All these years and I finally get to hear about my genius. Oh yes!"

"Some of them were really hard. I mean, the Test of Fear? Go through all that without flinching? It took me like ten tries to pass it!"

The Doctor rested his right leg on top of his left, still beaming at the vulpine. "Well, that was the point, wasn't it? But, you said you passed five of the tests. There were six of them."

The Doctor smirked minutely as he saw Fox's skin turn that familiar deep orange which indicated a blush on his part. "Oh yeah... heh... this is where it gets interesting. There's been a new addition to the team since we fought the Lylat Wars. She passed the first test, but got herself trapped in a crystal above the palace. Another one of your genius ideas, I suppose?" The Doctor squirmed slightly, but Fox didn't seem to notice. "When I released all the spirits, it released her too." Fox stared past the Doctor and into the stars beyond the Great Fox. "And her name is Krystal."

The Doctor laughed. "So, you found Krystal trapped in a crystal. Isn't that just fitting?"

The pair's attention was suddenly shifted to the bridge door as it slid open again. Standing there was the very vixen that fox and the Doctor were discussing. The latter turned his focus to the former, who was almost completely red in the face. _Funny, he kinda looks like a tomato._ "Just a wild guess, but would this young lady be Krystal?"

Fox's gaze was fixed upon Krystal's feminine form. "Um... uh... yeah, that's her. Uh... hi, Krys!" he motioned his paw towards the guest. "Well, uh, this is the Doctor."

Said Doctor leaped up from his chair and began walking towards Krystal, his arm outstretched. She initially began backing away, but then she saw Fox smiling warmly at her, and her fear simply melted away. That smile of his seemed to work wonders for the vixen. When the Doctor was finally within arm's reach of Krystal he took hold of her paw and shook it lightly. "I'm the Doctor, nice to meet you Krystal!"

"B-but, where's your f-fur?" stuttered the vixen.

The Doctor didn't hesitate for a second. "Let's just say that I'm not from here, I'll explain everything later." He briefly looked over his shoulder to check that Fox was still standing there. He was; he hadn't moved an inch since Krystal came in. "You know what?" asked the Doctor under his breath, but loud enough for Krystal to hear, "I think he fancies you." No sooner than he had spoken to the vixen, the Time Lord spun around to face Fox once more. "SO!" Both Fox and Krystal jumped at the sudden outburst. "You rescued Krystal, then what happened?"

It didn't take Krystal long to catch up with the storytelling. She had pulled up another chair and Krystal and the Doctor sat facing the captain's chair that Fox was slumped in. The three chatted about how Fox jumped into the Arwing and defeated Andross shortly after rescuing Krystal.

* * *

"Hold on a minute, if you and Falco went back to the ship, how did Krystal get on the Great Fox?" asked a confused Doctor.

The vixen in question turned her head to the Doctor. "Actually, someone told me to go there. Well, they didn't really tell me, it was like a voice in my head."

The Doctor and Fox had similar looks of surprise on their faces. Fox spoke up, "Really? How come you never told us before?"

Krystal replied in the standard way: "You never asked. To be honest, I don't think you even cared _how_ I got on the ship; you were too busy staring at me." Krystal had to admit that even she found it funny and even cute that Fox was staring. As inappropriate as the action was, she believed that Fox didn't have any bad intentions within him.

The Doctor's grin, which had been almost permanent since he had arrived, was now directed at Fox, who was routinely blushing vigorously and having trouble forming words.

"I... uh... um..."

"...um... um... oh... ah... yes... we get the picture, Fox.". The Time Lord turned to Krystal and the pair chuckled at Fox's expense. The vulpine's fur was almost thoroughly red as he turned away in shame and embarrassment.

"Sorry, Fox! I couldn't help it!" admitted the Doctor. Krystal was still a little confused at the appearance of Fox's new friend. She subconsciously allowed her telepathy to roam around the room.

Without warning, the Doctor leapt to his feet and drew his sonic screwdriver from his jacket pocket. "Right! Fox, Krystal, think of one thing, and one thing only. Preferably something with strong emotional connections. Concentrate on it and nothing else." The sonic screwdriver was emitting its usual buzzing noise as the Doctor appeared to scan the room with it. "Just keep thinking of that one thing. Come on, come on! Where are you? I felt you, you're here somewhere! You're... you're..."

Krystal chose to ignore the Doctor's requests, simply because she knew why he asked them to do it. This was the standard way to block telepathic signals. What she couldn't get her head around was the little blue thing that the Doctor was holding.

She, of course, had not blocked her own telepathic signals and so they had been picked up by the sonic screwdriver. The glowing instrument was now about two feet away from Krystal, where the signal appeared to be originating from.

"Uh, if you don't mind me asking," uttered Fox, "what is that?"

Still holding the object in question quite close to Krystal, the Doctor quickly replied, "Sonic screwdriver. Multitool. Everything in one. But for now, just concentrate on one specific thing. Come on..."

The Doctor tried to look around Krystal for something, which puzzled her a bit. "You're... you're... you! It's you! You're telepathic! Brilliant! Super powerful frontal cortex with mindwaves concentrated enough to... to smoosh into someone else's mind. Oh, I love telepaths!"

Krystal seemed confused, yet pleased at the same time. _Finally, somebody who appreciates it..._

"I'm not telepathic myself... well, I sort of am... well really I'm not; I have to have direct access to their head... quite complicated... Anyway, see if you can read my mind! Go on, give it a try!"

Fox stared at the vixen as she concentrated on the Doctor. He downed the last of his coffee and left the bridge, unnoticed by Krystal and the Doctor.

_She seems more interested in that Doctor than me, and he's only been here for about ten minutes! Does she even know that I care?_

He arrived at the kitchen, presently dropping his mug off in the sink, not bothering to rinse it. He sighed and walked back down the hall.

Fox's head turned sharply to the left as he noticed the lift doors opening once more. "Hey, Falco." said the vulpine.

Falco just stared at his face before slowly reaching over to the lift's control panel and pressing the door close button. As was expected, the doors closed with a swish, but not before opening again just as quickly.

"Only joking, Foxie!" jabbed Falco with a grin.

"You do realise that that was just completely pointless." replied Fox.

Falco lifted a feathery finger. "Pointless, but funny!" he pointed out.

"Uh, no it wasn't..." the vulpine pointed out.

Falco shrugged. "Meh. So, where's Krystal? I saw her with you earlier." The avian raised his eyebrows to accompany his accusation.

"OH, yeah." Fox began to walk back towards the bridge, beckoning Falco to follow. "She's at the bridge. And there's someone there I'd like you to meet."

.:.

"So," mused the Doctor, "tell me about this Falco..."


	4. Wide Eyed And Spiky Haired

Sweat was beading on Krystal's forehead as she tried to pry open the Doctor's mind with her telepathic will. To no avail, it seemed; his mental defences were more solid than any she had encountered before. No matter what means of telepathy she used against the Time Lord, they simply glanced off his massive defensive system.

Indeed, the size of the defences she was up against made no sense. Not only were they utterly impermeable, the actual volume was far too big for the size of his brain. Like a thirty foot coat for a kitten.

_It's almost as if it's bigger than it looks. _The vixen unknowingly spoke the next sentence aloud. _"_Bigger on the inside..."

"Well, it is actually," confirmed the Doctor, impressed by the vixen's mental offensive. "Time Lord genetics. So it can hold a lot more than you think. In here," The Doctor presently gestured to his head, "are memories of everything I've ever seen, heard, learnt, felt, smelled, set fire to and saved. Everything."

Krystal stifled a small giggle at the Doctor's description. "So, everything you've ever seen? Like photographic memory?"

"Sort of... well, no... but yes, and no... but the point is it explains the massive defence you felt. I need a really solid defence, otherwise some nasty people could get their hands on all my knowledge, and believe me, that's bad."

Krystal withdrew her mind from the Doctor's and pondered something. "You said you were 'not really', 'sort of' telepathic. What did you mean by that?"

The Doctor sat down in his chair, one leg resting on the other as before. "Well... see... I can see into people's minds, but only through physical contact. And even at that, it has to be fairly close to the brain. Believe it or not, I can tweak a few things in there as well. Wipe memories, create new ones, boost the power of the frontal lobe to make people temporarily telepathic, if you know what I mean, and..." The Time Lord smiled, shortly before sighing. "I've lost you, haven't I?"

"Yes," came the reply. "Yes you have."

"Right." ?The Doctor cleared his throat slightly. "While we're on the subject of telepathy, I suppose there's you."

Krystal was puzzled. "Me?"

"Yeah, you! Fox isn't telepathic, and as far as I can tell, there aren't many other telepaths about. So what I'm wondering is: why?"

Krystal's predominantly happy face sank into sorrow as she reluctantly cast her mind back to the past.

"Well," she began, carefully, "I'm not from Lylat, like the others. I'm from a planet called Cerinia. We were all-"

"Now, hold on there." The Doctor interrupted. He seemed to be getting quite good at it. "Cerinia... Heragunet... Cerinia's in the Heragunet system. Nostallas is in that system too, right?"

"I honestly have no idea," replied Krystal, now on the verge of exasperation. "_Anyway, _I'm from Cerinia, and all my people were telepaths. That's why it's only me."

The Doctor could tell that Krystal wasn't best pleased by his interruption, and he decided to stick to the topic for now. "That doesn't really explain it. But first, you said 'were'; are they not still telepaths? Or is it some sort of degrading telepathy?" The Doctor scratched the back of his ear as he tried to reach a plausible solution. "Old age?"

Krystal slipped into a sadness that was wholly reflected upon her vulpine face. The Doctor picked up on this change of emotion, and his face became dismayed while his relaxed demeanour shattered into seriousness.

There was a silence for a while; The Doctor realised what she meant when she said that all her people _were _telepaths.

The blue vixen spoke, relieving the pair from the sudden moment of sorrow. "My planet was destroyed. The atmosphere burnt up, the water disappeared, the planet's just a ruin now. I don't know what caused it, not very many others do. And all my friends, my family, my people went with it. I'm the only survivor."

The Doctor managed the faintest of smiles, but it was only short lived. "Tell me about it. Losing your entire planet isn't easy, but you eventually come to terms with it. Which both you and I seem to have done."

Krystal seemed puzzled, but then realisation washed over her face. "You lost your home planet too?"

"And my people," explained the Doctor. "But I do know what caused it."

That gleam of true sorrow barely twinkled in the Doctor's eye as he unwillingly remembered the reason for the Time Lords' demise.

Krystal detected the raw emotion building up behind the mental blockade of the Doctor's. "I can see that you don't want to talk about it," she said, softly and reassuringly.

The Doctor looked into Krystal's understanding eyes and succeeded in smiling gratefully to her. "Thanks, Krystal. I'm guessing this is one of the reasons you're here."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Fox found you, you turn up on his ship and lo and behold, you're on the team within days! And where I come from, mercenaries don't work like that. Why did they let you join the team?"

The vixen didn't know how to react to that. "Well... uh, Slippy reckoned I had talent, since I passed this special test to get something called a Krazoa sp-"

The Doctor raised a hand, stopping Krystal. "Yes, yes, I know about the Krazoa tests, carry on."

Krystal was slightly taken aback by the statement, but soon got over it. "Right. OK then. He saw potential since I passed the first test on my own. Peppy realised my want to help others, and recommended me. Falco had left the team for a while, and he took his time when it came to caring about something." The pair chuckled at the remark before the vixen continued. "And Fox... well, firstly Fox agreed to take me on the Great Fox, because I had nowhere to go. And he let me join the team cause... cause..."

She trailed off as she realised something exceedingly important that she had previously overlooked. _Fox never gave a reason..._

The Doctor cut her revelation short. "Krystal?" he asked, in the four-year-old-child-wanting-something-from-his-mother tone of voice.

"Yes, Doctor?" replied the blue furred vixen, catching on to his intentions.

"If you don't mind, can I take a peek inside your head? I've never used my 'sort-of' telepathy on a real telepath before."

Krystal thought seriously for a moment. _It's been about ten minutes since I met this Doctor, and he wants into my head. _The vixen raised her head slightly to observe the Doctor's aged, child-like face. "Oh, come on Krystal! If there's anything you don't want me to see, I won't look. Please?

_Well, he's certainly not gonna do anything bad... _"Alright then!" submitted Krystal. "Go ahead."

The Doctor beamed at the vixen before leaping off his seat and kneeling beside Krystal so the pair was at eye level. "Right," began the Time Lord, "remember what I said about physical contact?". After a confirming nod from Krystal, the Doctor continued. "Well, basically I'm gonna have to put my hands round your head, if that's OK?"

"...Alright then." It was obvious that Krystal was nervous about the whole ordeal.

"Oh, relax, Krystal! It's not like I'm gonna scoop out your personal secrets and tell the whole world! Or tell Lylat, or the system or whatever it is you guys say..."

Krystal giggled at the Doctors musings, despite her confusion as to what he was rambling on about. Her laugh caused the Time Lord to smile. He liked it when he was funny.

"And you're probably aware of how to block thoughts and such, since you're a telepath, so just do that and I won't go in. And if you get uncomfortable at all, just imagine a huge door and close it. I'll stop then and there. Are you sure you're OK with this?"

The vixen swallowed before replying. "Yep. Let's see what you got!"

"Oh, just watch me!"

_I see a mind. A soul. Predominantly blue and purple, bits of white. There is quite a large orange section as well..._

_I can see the telepathy. Like a whole civilisation, exploring the depths of space. A super-concentrated beam of mindwave-electricity connecting with the nerves in other people's brains. Brilliant._

_I start looking around for any memories. Many are blocked, but fewer in number than the available ones. Strange that there are almost no memories with Fox...Or at least that she's letting me see..._

_I watch the first interesting memory I find. I see Krystal's first flight in an Arwing..._

_I take a look at another mental image. I see Krystal's friend Lucy..._

_I find what looks like a funny memory. No, it's something Krystal's planning to do. I see three things: Krystal, Fox and a shaver..._

_I see something blue, and it's not Krystal. It is a bird-like figure with red rings around his eyes. I hear the name Falco..._

The increasingly used bridge door slid open to reveal Fox and Falco, but neither Krystal nor the Doctor noticed them. They were both deep inside each other's minds.

"Uh, Fox?" asked Falco. "A few things: one, who or what is this friend of yours, and two, what's he doing to Krystal?"

"I have no idea," replied a somewhat uncomfortable Fox, folding his arms. "He hasn't even told me yet. And maybe they're-"

The vulpine was interrupted by the Doctor's voice. Again.

"Yep, if there were lots of flashy buttons in front of me, I'd press them too..."

"OK, that's weird," observed Falco. Before Fox could say anything in reply, the Time Lord spoke up again.

"Well, she seems nice! Always good to have a close friend."

"What in Lylat is he talking about?" Fox asked. Falco shrugged and motioned for the vulpine to get closer. The pair tiptoed towards the Doctor and Krystal as the former continued in his musings.

"Yep, good luck with that one." The Doctor said as he smirked. "I'm sure Fox'll be pleased."

Falco saw an opening for a witty comment. And used it wisely. "You know, maybe he's on to something, eh Foxie?"

Fox rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the Time Lord.

"So," mused the Doctor, "tell me about this Falco..."

Falco tapped the Doctor on the shoulder. His eyes shot open, his hands left Krystal's head and he shook his head a bit. "Sorry, can I help?"

The avian fanned out his feathery fingers and uttered a sarcastic "Ta-da!"

The Doctor gave Falco an odd look for a moment, before realising. "Oh! You must be Falco!" The Doctor extended his hand again, which earned a disappointed look from the avian. One thing he noticed was that Falco wasn't really surprised by his appearance, unlike the other two. The Time Lord put his hand back in his pocket with a sigh before continuing. "So, Falco Lombardi! Nice name, by the way. Almost as good as mine."

Falco folded his wings. "Which would be...?"

"Oh, right. I'm the Doctor."

"The Doctor."

"Yes. The Doctor."

Falco chuckled. "That's like calling me the Awesome. Well, yes, I am awesome, of course, but it just doesn't work, does it? Just cause you're a doctor or whatever."

The Doctor sighed and prepared to count his retaliations with his fingers. "One, no it isn't. Two, you can't _be_ that awesome. Three, I'm not _a _doctor, I'm _the_ Doctor. It's my name." A slight smile etched its way onto the Doctor's face. _I could have some fun with this guy._ "Four, you really need a shower, you smell a bit."

"Hey, I'm not the one who stinks like a shaved monkey!" retorted Falco. "And looks like one for that matter!"

By this point, Krystal had got up off the floor to join Fox. They were both looking on at the scene with smirks scribbled on their faces. "Well, I reckon they'll get along well," observed the vulpine.

Krystal giggled and simply replied "Yep."

The Doctor continued. "Better a monkey than a pigeon!"

"Correction!" chimed Falco, pointing his finger up in defiance. "Half-pigeon, smart-ass!"

The Doctor returned his hands to his pockets with another sigh and glanced at Fox, who was shaking his head half-disapprovingly, yet still chuckling to himself. Krystal just folded her arms and rolled her eyes at the pair, almost in chastisement.

"Not to sound submissive or anything, but as much as these two are enjoying this, I think this is just wasting time," observed the Doctor. He withdrew his hand from his pocket again before adding "Truce for now, feathers?"

Falco thought for a moment before accepting the offer. "By the way, why is your headfur so spiky? You might need to wash that out..."

The Doctor cast a confused look to the avian. "Headfur?..." The Doctor ran his hands through his hair as he realised. "Oh, hair! Right! We call it hair, since we kind of lack in the fur department."

"Well, yes. Not hard to spot, if I'm honest. Right, shall we get on with it?"

The Doctor grinned before replying. "Sounds good to me!"

Both Falco and the Doctor turned to face the two vulpine. "SO!" exclaimed the pair simultaneously, causing another startled reaction from both Fox and Krystal. Falco and the Doctor shot quizzical looks at each other before the latter spoke again. "Right! So, I've met you, Krys..." the Doctor interrupted himself as he turned to face Krystal. "You don't mind if I call you Krys, do you?" With a confirming nod and a smile on Krystal's part, the Doctor's attention turned back to Fox. "You, Krys and Falco. That just leaves... Peppy and Slippy!"

Falco folded his wings again as he spoke up. "Oh, yeah. Fox, Peppy told me to tell you that he's away visiting Lucy on Fichina. Won't be back for a few weeks."

Fox scratched his headfur. "Oh, well. Sorry, but it looks like you aren't meeting Peppy just yet, Doctor."

The Time Lord simply shrugged. "Ah well! Less time wasted on my part. I never really liked getting acquainted. I'm more of an action guy, you see. You say hello? I say run!"

"Finally!" breathed Falco. "Someone who understands the pain of meeting people!"

Both the Doctor and Fox chuckled. "Well, I'm glad that worked out for you, Falco."

Krystal spoke up. "Slippy's still in the garage, if you want to go meet him." she said to the Doctor.

"Alright then! Allons-y!" The Doctor clapped his hands together before strolling ahead, out of the bridge and turned left down the hallway. He paused for a moment, while the others made their way outside. "Why did you stop?" asked Fox.

The Time Lord swivelled round. "Oh, is this the right way? Oh. Good."

He turned back and continued in his ambling. The trio looked confused, but Falco just shrugged and they carried on. After a while, the avian increased his pace until he was beside the Doctor. "So tell me, Doctor, what is it you do?"

"Put simply, I'm a traveller. I travel a lot."

When he didn't receive a reply, the Time Lord turned his head towards Falco, who had a blank look on his face. "I _was _expecting a bit more than that."

The Doctor couldn't help but laugh. "You don't know the half of it." he muttered under his breath.

Behind them, Fox and Krystal were dragging along.

"So," began Fox, "what do you think of this Doctor?"

"He's odd. Very odd." concluded the vixen. "But I like him, he's... he's special."

Fox was a little confused at this. "What do you mean?"

"Well, he's not from here, that's a start. And his mind! You should have seen it! It was huge!"

The vulpine was now more than a little confused. "How does that work? I mean, his head _is _a bit big, but..."

Krystal giggled softly. She loved Fox's jokes, stupid as they were. It made her laugh, but more importantly to her, it made Fox feel good.

In return for his joke, Krystal's laugh was one that made his heart beat faster and his head sink into sweet certainty. He knew Krystal enjoyed his jokes, though, which was the main thing.

Fox turned to face the vixen. They were both smiling as they stared into each other's eyes; Krystal's alluring, aquatic eyes met Fox's of purest emerald green. Fox wasn't really able to think comprehensive sentences at this point in time, so he didn't need to worry about Krystal reading his mind. What the vulpine was thinking as he gazed into her eyes was something along the lines of _she... eyes... blue... Krys... fur..._ Unlike Fox, Krystal was fully aware that they were staring at each other, which she didn't really mind. She was too deep in a trance to even begin using her telepathy, but had she been able to, she would have found no ill intent within Fox's mind.

"_Fox... Krystal? Yoo-hoo! FOX!"_

"Hmm?" Fox subconsciously replied, before realising what had just happened. He and Krystal had been staring at each other, causing Falco to try and disturb them while the Doctor just stood and smiled. _Ah, _the Time Lord thought to himself, _young love. _He winced before adding _clichés are going to be the death of me. ... OK, that's enough of that._

In a desperate attempt to regain Fox's attention, Falco deployed a nasty blow. "You do realise that I'll never let you forget this if you two keep it up?"

It took the vulpine a few seconds to piece Falco's sentence together. When he finally figured it out, Fox blinked a few times before backing away from the vixen of his dreams. "Oh! Um... uh... yeah... there was... uh... something in Krystal's eye..."

"Uh huh, and you needed a good long look at it, didn't you?" said Falco, finishing Fox's sentence. "Now, come on, and let's get this over with. I'm hungry!" With that, the bird wheeled round and began walking briskly towards the garage again.

Fox was still in shock at the situation. He steered clear of Krystal by brushing past the stationary Doctor, but staying behind Falco. He didn't really want to be tormented about the whole scenario. The vulpine's blush was still radiating from his muzzle as he mulled over the situation in his head. _She's not gonna be happy that I was staring at her!_

Krystal was just as startled as Fox, although she actually enjoyed it. However, her face descended into sadness when Fox ran ahead, avoiding her once more. She looked towards the Doctor, who was still standing there, observing the scene. The Time Lord could tell that the cause of her sorrow was Fox's reaction to the whole incident. _I'll have to ask him about that..._

"Coming?" he asked, trying to lift the mood a bit. Krystal looked up, simply nodded and followed the Doctor, Fox and Falco to the garage in silence.

The garage door rattled open to reveal a workshop with several aircraft lined up in rows. There was whirring and clanking originating from all parts of the garage, but predominantly from under one vehicle. A pair of small, boot-clad feet protruded from underneath a dismantled Arwing. That was the thing about Slippy: even after eight years of doing so, he never got tired of examining and upgrading the Arwing's parts. The frog never did get much fascination out of the rest of his team; they failed to understand the bulk of what he was saying. As far as Falco, Fox and Krystal were concerned, it was just another trip to the garage. But for the Doctor, this was like stepping into a room full of solid gold.

His eyes widened, his grin stretching impossibly far across his face and he sort of gasped.

Fox knelt down beside the incomplete Arwing and yelled "Hey, Slippy! You finished in there?"

"Nearly!" came the shrill reply, "just got to re-calibrate the G-Diffusers along with the steering. I stuck an extra gear in the works so it's faster and easier to pull loops and the like."

Of course, the Time Lord completely ignored this. He was taken aback by the sheer amount of technology encompassing him, both familiar and new. "G-Diffusers!" gasped the Doctor. "Like G-force kinda G?"

Fox nodded in return. "It means we can pull of all sorts of... Doctor?"

Before the vulpine could finish his sentence, the Doctor was under the Arwing in seconds, examining every component and part with great interest.

Fox, Krystal and Falco could hear the Doctor's muffled musings as he took particular liking to one of the four large, blue G-Diffusers that rested atop and below each wing. "It actually calculates the centre of mass of the aircraft plus anything else that's on board, passenger included, any move that you're about to pull and applies _new _forces that almost completely neutralize the effects of the G-forces, all in about 0.002 seconds!". The coarse buzzing of the sonic screwdriver could be heard above the groans and wrenches of the other machinery at work. "BUT, where does it get the energy to make the forces from? It'd drain the engine dead... oh... OH! It harnesses the power of gravity! It actually takes the potential energy straight from the G-forces and turns it into _different_ forces acting against them! Genius!"

Slippy's voice came from inside the Arwing now. "Hey, Fox. Is this a friend of yours or something? Whoever he is, he knows quite a bit about that G-Diffuser! Maybe he could help me with some stuff."

The Doctor had now pulled himself up from beneath the aircraft, now sporting his faux reading glasses and joined the three team members who were both shocked and confused by the Time Lord's knowledge of their equipment.

Fox shook his head slightly before answering Slippy. "Well, maybe if you get your ass out of that Arwing you'd be able to see who it is!"

"Mmmph... hold on a minute. Argh! Why won't it work?"

A few rattling noises were heard as Slippy clambered out from underneath the Arwing, his goggles stained black with oil.

With a sigh, Fox introduces Slippy to their guest. "Slippy, this is the Doctor. Doctor, Slippy Toad, Star Fox's technician."

Slippy turned to face the Time Lord, before fiddling with the straps of the goggles. "Hi there, Doctor... sorry, what was you- WHAT?" As Slippy removed the vision-impairing goggles from around his eyes, he was taken aback by the strange being standing in front of him. "B-b-but y-you-" he stuttered.

"No, it's just the Doctor." confirmed the Time Lord, "And everyone seems to portray me as some sort of hairless ape, so you could go with that I suppose. ANYWAY, what were you doing to that old Arwing then?"

Slippy had calmed down a little as he replied. He could tell that this Doctor knew what he was talking about, so he didn't dumb down as much as he normally would for his team-mates. "W-well, I fitted a new steering system, put an extra sensor into the auto-shield system, took out the cooling system for the engine and put in some air channels to cool it manually, saving loads of fuel. Of course, that doesn't work in space, but I think I'll install a secondary cooler later."

"And what type are the engines then?" asked the Doctor, becoming increasingly intrigued.

"NTD-FXI Plasma, with two main outputs: one for combustible atmosphere to increase the efficiency of the fuel cells, and one for non-combustible atmospheres and the vacuums of space, it's just a standard plasma boost."

"And the fuel cells, they'd have to be... what... hydrogen, carbon and rubidium mix, farandine, bit of ununtriburite?"

Slippy's already wide eyes seemingly swelled in size before a half-nervous chuckle. "You said that like you've never seen a fuel cell before."

The Doctor nodded in agreement. "No, you're right I haven't. But I mean, there has to be hydrogen, you can't not have hydrogen! Carbon mixed with rubidium for the extra boost when there's no atmosphere, farandine for the plasma, of course, and ununtriburite as a catalyst. The ultimate power source. Well, except for Z-neutrino energy, but then you'd have enough power to destroy the entire universe, which isn't the best... Well, the TARDIS out-does it as well, but you get the picture with that."

Three pairs of eyes, one green, one turquoise and one blue, were fixed on the Doctor as their owners tried to comprehend what in Lylat he was on about.

There was, however, a fourth pair of eyes trained on the Time Lord, although the expression was rather different. Large, steel-blue eyes that belonged to Slippy. His expression appeared to say 'Wow, that guy's a real genius!', and a small part of him was curious as to what he meant by 'TARDIS'.

The Doctor took a quick look around him to find everyone staring at him. "Oh, come on!" he pleaded. "Anyone could've figured it out!"

Slippy had an idea. "Doctor?" he asked.

The Time Lord in question smiled slightly before replying "Yes, Mr. Toad?"

He turned to the side and pointed at the Arwing, while still facing the Doctor. "You seem to know a lot about.... well... everything! Could you take a look at the Arwing and tell me why it won't work properly?"

The Doctor grinned. "I love a challenge!" He bolted towards the Arwing as he whipped out his sonic screwdriver once more. Slippy had yet to see this technological wonder, and wondered what exactly it was. This wonder turned into fascination as the Doctor activated the screwdriver, glowing and humming as he scanned over the Arwing.

Slippy used this moment to ask Fox something. "What's with his headfur? And what's he got in it? It... it sticks up!"

Fox shrugged. "Don't ask me! He still won't tell us where the rest of his fur is, either!"

The Doctor's voice caught the attention of Slippy and Fox. "So you've modified the Arwing then? Do all the added parts work?"

There was silence aside from the sonic screwdriver's occasional buzzing and the various noises from the garage.

The Doctor tried again. "Slippy, do the modifications actually work?"

When he failed to receive a reply for the second time, he looked up from his work to find the frog looking at his hand as if he was mesmerised. The Doctor followed his gaze and realised that the cause of Slippy's amazement was the sonic screwdriver. "What, this?" the Time Lord questioned as he lifted the screwdriver in his hand. "Sonic screwdriver." he explained. "You can use it for pretty much everything; scanning, switching, fixing, you name it! But, you _kinda _have to tell me what you did..."

"...what? Oh! Oh, right." Slippy's eyes darted around in their sockets as he was dragged back into reality. "Uh... well... like I said, steering, shields and I also used an accelerator for the smart-bomb cannon. I ran tests on each mod separately, and they all work fine, but when they're applied to the Arwing, the whole thing shorts out."

"Hmm..." the Doctor thought aloud before returning to his evaluation of the Arwing. Slippy squirmed as the Doctor pulled out and checked his handiwork, but he was relieved when the Doctor put everything back and appeared from under the aircraft.

"And, what exactly happens when you try to start it?" he asked.

The frog scurried over to the cockpit of the Arwing, opened the catch and pressed a sequence of buttons which would have normally started up the vehicle. When a low, weak and short-lived groan was heard, the Doctor cocked an eyebrow while Slippy explained. "There's power coming through, but not enough is reaching the console, so the safety shuts down the Arwing. I've tried all sorts of resistance on the mods, but there still isn't enough power to-"

The Doctor held up a hand to stop Slippy in his tracks. When the frog was silenced, he leaned upon the nose of the Arwing, crossing one leg over the other. "I _think _I know what the problem is." he stated.

Slippy grew expectant. "Well? What is it?"

"This." The Doctor pointed the sonic screwdriver to the bottom of the Arwing and shortly after, a small screw fell to the floor underneath with a ping. For a few seconds, nothing happened. Falco, having said nothing for a while, was preparing to rile the Doctor concerning his failure when out of the blue, the Arwing's console buzzed to life with flashing buttons and various displays. All the while, the Doctor observed the changing reactions on Slippy's face. _An excited, impressed, shocked, delirious frog. Never thought I'd see one of these!_

Slippy was stunned. He had spent days trying to fix the aircraft, and the Doctor had solved it within a few seconds using that sonic screwdriver.

"But... how... what did-?" stammered Slippy, unable to speak anything more comprehensive.

"What? It _is_ a screwdriver, after all!" joked the Doctor.

Slippy just stood there, wide-eyed, staring at the impossible Time Lord. Several things pulsed through his mind. _Who is he? _What _is he? Where's he from? I want that sonic screwdriver!_

Fox, however, was not as affected by the Doctor's triumph. He strode up to the Time Lord and offered him his paw. "Thanks, Doctor!" he said, "Slippy's been trying to fix it for ages."

After shaking Fox's paw, the Doctor decided that it was only right to defend the frog. "Yes, yes, yes. BUT, you should see some of the stuff he's done to that thing! My TARDIS doesn't even have some of those enhancers!" He shot a grin at Slippy, who was now predominantly curious.

"What _is_ a TARDIS?" he asked. "You mentioned it before, but-"

The Doctor's face lit up as he removed his glasses, cutting Slippy off once more. "Oh!" he exclaimed. "Fox, Krystal, Falco, Slippy, follow me!"

The Time Lord's brilliant memory guided him out of the garage, past the bridge and towards the lift where he had first met Fox.

"Doctor!" Fox called after him. "Where are we going?"

The Doctor stopped in his tracks and wheeled around to face the four pilots as they just about caught up with him.

His never fading grin was still fixed to his face as he excitedly told them what they were about to witness. "We're going to see the TARDIS!"


	5. Miles Away

Slippy was running out of breath as he chased after Fox, Krystal and Falco who, unlike the frog, had no trouble keeping up with the Doctor. _TARDIS... _he thought, _where have I heard that before...?_

He shook the thought off as the others had stopped to wait for the lift carriage. Slippy was almost there as the quartet stepped inside.

The frog heard the Doctor's voice. "Hold the door for Slippy, Falco."

Falco, however, had other plans. He pressed the the very same button as he did earlier that day, leaving Slippy on his own outside.

"Falco!" scolded Krystal, while Fox shot Falco his trademark 'look'.

The Doctor turned to Falco and also gave him a 'look'. "Do you really have to treat him like this?"

"Yes?" asserted Falco, with a grin.

The Doctor sighed, shortly before pressing the button for the fifth floor, where the Time And Relative Dimensions In Space was waiting for him.

Slippy saw the numbers on the lift rising as the rest of his team abandoned him. "I can't believe they left me here!" The frog sighed before adding "Ah well." He propped himself up against the wall, pressed the call button and waited for the lift to return.

On the fifth floor, the lift doors parted to reveal two excited vulpine, followed by a mildly uninterested bird. As they stepped from the lift they were careful to keep a look-out for anything out of the ordinary. It didn't take long to find something that fitted the description; a little, blue, wooden box.

"What's that?" asked a puzzled Fox. "Is this his ship?"

"Well, if it is, he must have had fun getting it in here." observed Falco.

"Police Box..." Krystal read aloud, "What's a Police Box?"

"Well, that, I suppose." joked Fox in response. "Where's the Doctor gone, though?"

The vulpine's head appeared round the corner to see the Doctor playing with what looked like various pieces of junk glued together. It was glowing, beeping and spinning as the Doctor pressed buttons and occasionally whacked it with the base of his hand.

"Coming, Doctor?" asked Fox.

The Doctor, unaware of Fox's presence, immediately returned the Omega detector to his pocket before turning to face the vulpine.

"Oh, you three go on in!" The Doctor clicked his fingers before continuing. "Just... don't touch anything..."

"But the door's closed. How do we-"

Fox was interrupted by a gasp from Krystal and a "wow" from Falco.

"Well, go on! Take a look!"

Fox slowly but surely turned to face the TARDIS and a quizzical look washed over his face. As he walked off to investigate, a swoosh shifted the Doctor's attention to the lift behind him as Slippy stepped out.

"Can you believe it?" yelled an enraged frog. "I fix their Arwings, I keep ROB working, I even helped design the program to kill _the_ Aparoid queen, and I _still _get treated like dirt!"

"Well," began the Doctor, "technically it's Falco that treats you like that. I don't think Fox and Krystal are too impressed by it, though. It's a shame that no-one fully appreciates what you do for this team."

"Uh..." Slippy mumbled as he scratched the back of his head. "I mean, Fox gives me quite a bit of credit. Granted, he doesn't understand half of what I say, but at least it's something."

The Doctor chuckled. "I know the feeling. Donna used to just stand there and call me 'spaceman' whenever I went off on a tangent." His mind wandered off to his past as he subconsciously remembered his time with Donna Noble, which led to stray thoughts of all his past adventures, and their respective companions. And then, nothing.

Slippy noticed that the Doctor began to drift off. "Uh, Doctor?"

The Doctor was hauled back into reality and he continued where he left off. "ANYWAY, coming?"

Slippy nodded, somewhat confused, and walked alongside the Doctor, who was quite a bit taller than the frog.

"So, that sonic screwdriver of yours..." said Slippy, who was beginning to get excited.

"Yes, what about it?"

"Can... can I see it?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes before delving into his pocket and producing the sonic screwdriver. He showed it to Slippy, whose eyes sparkled at the sight of it. He tried to grab it, but the Doctor was quick to put it back.

"And now you've seen it!" he joked. Slippy seemed quite saddened by this, and the Doctor presently felt sorry for him.

"Don't worry, Slip. I promise I'll let you have a proper look at it later. Besides, you need to be sort of familiar with the TARDIS to properly understand it."

_He said it again... TARDIS..._ Slippy cycled the word through his head. "But Doctor, what is the TARDIS?"

The Doctor beamed at the frog. "Take a look."

As they turned the corner, Slippy was brimming with excitement at what the TARDIS might be. Of course, he was slightly disappointed when he saw a blue, wooden box that was seemingly abandoned in the corridor.

"This is it?" asked a disillusioned Slippy. The Doctor simply laughed at him.

"Slippy, Slippy, Slippy!" repeated the Doctor as he patted the frog on the back. "Where's your faith? Hmm?"

The Doctor overtook Slippy and stood beside the TARDIS door. "Ready?"

The frog laughed. "Ready? For a little blue b-" The Doctor stopped Slippy in his tracks by opening the door, revealing the huge innards of the ship.

Slippy was rooted to the spot in disbelief. _It's bigger on the inside! But it can't be... But it is!_ He slipped free of his roots and sprinted around the TARDIS as fast as he could, still trying to comprehend what he was seeing. When he ran into the Doctor on his way round, the Time Lord grinned at him. He never got tired of seeing people's faces after coming across the TARDIS for the first time.

Slippy, after a few attempts, spoke up. "I-is it really b-bigger on the in-inside?" he stammered.

"Well," replied the Doctor, "why don't you judge for yourself?"

The frog followed the Doctor's motion as he stepped inside the TARDIS. While he was taking it all in, the Doctor brushed past him to check on the others.

Fox was hovering around the console, trying to make sense of what all the buttons and switches were for, and also contemplating how the Doctor could find any of them within the entanglement of wires that were sprawled over the control panels.

Krystal was running her paws along the coral-like pillars that supported the ship. _It's beautiful... _she thought.

Falco, despite being in an alien spaceship which was clearly huge on the inside, but resembled a much smaller wooden box on the outside, was beginning to get bored. He wandered off towards the back of the control room and into the living section of the TARDIS.

"Oh no you don't, Falco," warned the Doctor, stepping through the doors and removing a few panels from under the console.

The Time Lord heard a sigh from behind him as the avian promptly swivelled round and walked back around the control panel.

"So," said Fox, still taken aback slightly by what he was seeing, "this is your spaceship, then?"

The Doctor, without looking up from his work, replied "Oh, it's more than that! I live here as well you know."

"But," Slippy interjected, "how did it get in here? If you'd teleported, we'd have known about it, and you couldn't have just landed it in the garage and dragged it all the way up here!"

The Doctor stood up from beneath the console. "Oh, you _are _clever! See?" he asked, meeting the gazes of Fox, Falco and Krystal, "You three would never have thought of asking that that quickly? That that... that that... don't you just hate it when that happens? Like when you say 'that that' or 'had had' but there's no other way around it. There should be some sort of word for it, like... oh, I dunno, thatted? Had-d?"

He looked around to find a few confused faces staring at him.

"What?"

"Doctor, what are you on about?" Falco inquired.

The Time Lord realised that he was talking too fast for anyone to understand and about a topic so pointless for anyone to listen.

"If I ever do that again, stop me. Trying to break a habit."

"Yes..." muttered Fox. "Anyway, Doctor, you owe us some explanations. Starting with who are you, what are you and where are you from?"

The Doctor sighed slightly, then said "Alright then, brace yourselves!"

He took a few steps towards one of the pillars and propped himself up against it. "Well, as you all know, I'm the Doctor."

"Yes, but Doctor who?" asked Fox

"Just the Doctor. That's all, that's it. The end, finito, bye-bye!" He folded his arms in mock defiance. "Geddit?"

"...If you say so," uttered Falco.

"Doctor," Krystal began, "you said something about Time Lord genetics; how your brain was bigger on the inside?"

The Doctor acknowledged this with a nod. "Indeed I did."

The vixen continued. "So, what's a Time Lord? And is that why the TARDIS is bigger on the inside too?"

"A Time Lord is me, and I am a Time Lord. Race of people from Gallifrey." Krystal noticed that his face leaked the only the smallest traces of bitter nostalgia as he avoided the subject. "And, yes, we designed everything like this. Technically, it exists in another dimension to the Police Box outside, but it's a bit complicated."

"You don't say," scoffed Falco. "So, tell us what the whole 'little blue box' thing is about."

The Doctor presently explained the Chameleon circuit to the team.

"What if the... Chameleon circuit thing was working when you came here?" asked a curious Fox.

"Well, I dunno, an Arwing? Um..." The Doctor scratched the back of his head before continuing. "Yeah, I don't know anything else about Lylat."

Falco chuckled. The Doctor couldn't conceal his embarrassment at his lack of knowledge.

"The question is," said the avian, "why did you land here?"

"Yeah," Fox seconded, "you didn't even know where 'here' was when you ran into me. What's up with that?"

"Ah. Well, I was being chased through the time stream by this... thing... and, long story short, I got away by setting the controls to random. And I ended up here."

Slippy, who had only recently recovered from his shock and disbelief of the TARDIS, questioned the Doctor further. "But where were you going before the thing followed you?"

"Oh, I got a distress signal from the planet Nostallas." The Doctor's smile promptly inverted. "A distress signal which I completely forgot about."

Presently, Fox, Falco and Slippy took a few steps back to clear the Doctor's path around the console as he prepared to travel to Nostallas. The Star Fox team looked on in confusion and awe as he adjusted various temporal and spacial controls on the console.

When he had finished, the Doctor stood up straight, his trademark grin returning to his visage once more. "I could do with a few pairs of hands... well, paws, wings and... uh..." The Doctor was seemingly stumped by Slippy's appendages. "hands...? Suckers? Well, frogs don't have suckers, they've fingers-with-suckers. Unless of course you're from the planet Plavanol in which case, they do. You know, they have the most wonderful lily ponds-"

"Doctor!" yelled Fox.

As if nothing had happened, the Doctor continued. "So, what I'm saying is, do you guys want to tag along?"

"Yeah!" the quartet-in-question yelled at the same time.

"Right then!" The Doctor placed his hand on the ignition lever. "Hold on tight!"

There was a faint flicking sound as the lever was engaged, followed by a low rumble as the TARDIS began to shake and sway violently, the column sliding up and down in its casing. Fox stumbled back after a jolt, bumping right into Krystal and knocking them both to the floor.

The two vulpine giggled, and blushed, at the incident. As the TARDIS bumped once more, Fox instinctively reached out with both paws for something to hold on to. One found a stable railing, while the other found Krystal's warm paw. Surprise coursed through the pair as they realised what had just happened. They turned to face each other and smiled caringly, if sheepishly. Unlike his normal self, Fox didn't seem bothered by the close contact, aside from his custom blushing. It contented him to see that Falco and Slippy were wrestling each other at the opposite end of the TARDIS, oblivious to the sweet scenario that Fox had gladly landed himself in. His gaze met that of Krystal's and they lay there, their bodies swaying with the motion of the TARDIS, in perfect happiness with each other.

The Doctor watched as Fox stared into, through, and beyond Krystal's sea-green eyes as Krystal did likewise to Fox's. He felt incredibly happy for them; it was obvious that they were both madly in love with one another. Yet, envy crept its way into the Doctor's purest heart. He had loved several times before, though one partner shone out beyond the rest: Rose. He had, and still did, loved her more than he could ever comprehend, yet he lost her. And when she crossed dimensions to find her, he gave her his human counterpart. Had he not loved her so, he would never have allowed the compromise to take place, but he did. Yet another action that he would regret for the rest of his existence.

The Time Lord was returned to reality when he realised that he needed to stop. He disengaged the time drives and the TARDIS suddenly stopped in its tracks.

Fox and Krystal stood up, their physical contact broken in fear of embarrassment on Fox's part, followed by Falco and Slippy. They waited for the Doctor to tell them what just happened.

Falco promptly grew impatient. "Doctor? Hello?"

_...Rose_

"Sorry!" he exclaimed, shaking his head a bit as he fell out of his trance once more. "OK, then, let's go check out Nostallas!"

Fox stared at the door, before addressing the Doctor again. "Have we really moved?"

"Of course we have! Take a look if you don't believe me!" He bolted for the exit, grabbing his overcoat on the way out and flung the doors open to step onto yet another planet, the other four following suit.

Krystal was the last to leave the TARDIS doors; she was a bit apprehensive about yet another change. _It's not like it's Cerinia again... you can do it..._

She stepped outside, firstly noticing the grief, anger even, on the Doctor's face. But then, she saw an all too familiar scene.

Fox, Falco and Slippy were astounded by what they saw. "We've actually moved!" cried Slippy. "I can't believe it!"

"Neither can I," The Doctor almost growled, seriousness veiling his entire being.

Fox noticed this and asked "Doctor, is everything alright?" However, his attention was suddenly focused on Krystal whose face showed horror and sorrow at what she saw. "Krystal?" He immediately ran over to comfort her.

"Doctor?" Slippy asked, treading carefully.

"It's dead." stated the Time Lord, gritting his teeth. "Nostallas is dead."


	6. Slightly Unreliable

The Doctor, along with Falco, Slippy and Krystal, stared out at the desolation that was once Nostallas. Fox, however, was too busy with Krystal to notice the landscape.

The ground was stained a dire red-black, like ashes. There were no plants, no animals, nothing. Even the atmosphere was gone; the Doctor could tell by the now visible bubble shields of the extrapolator that were now protecting the five from the harsh effects of space.

Fox, who had not shifted his attention from Krystal for a second, noticed a tear come to her aquatic eye. "Krystal..." Fox half-pleaded, "Are you OK?"

Although unintentionally, Krystal ignored Fox's question. Unwanted memories of her past that surged up from the forgotten depths of her mind were clouding out everything around her save for the scene of destruction that lay even beneath her feet. The painful memories caused the vixen to unknowingly speak in her mother tongue.

"De... ak'j zijk cabo roveho..." she cried, softly.

The Doctor, whose brilliant mind automatically converted his speech into Saurian, felt the need to comfort her. "A'm jehh0, Krystal." he growled, through his teeth, "A'm je jehh0."

The Doctor was angry. Yes, he was angry with whoever – or whatever – destroyed Nostallas, but he was predominantly angry with himself. If he hadn't forgotten about that distress signal, he might have been able to stop it. The chances that he would have actually succeeded were slim, but they were chances nonetheless.

Falco still hadn't realised that Nostallas shouldn't look like it did and was glancing between Krystal and the Doctor impatiently. "What's going on, Doctor?"

The Doctor's brain switched back to Lylat and, without moving, he replied solemnly. "If I'm right, Krystal's seen something like this before."

The vixen registered that. She nodded, unable to tear her gaze from the forsaken ashes. "This is what happened to Cerinia. Oh..."

With that, Krystal couldn't take it. She broke down into tears, and Fox almost instantly stepped in to comfort her. Falco resisted every urge in his being to make a comment, given the highly inappropriate circumstances.

The Doctor finally turned to face them. "Fox, Falco, take Krystal back inside the TARDIS." He presently turned to the frog. "Slippy, I'll need you out here for a minute."

Fox was quick to obey the Doctor, guiding Krystal back into the Police Box, unlike Falco who took a few seconds and a sigh to comply.

When the Doctor once again withdrew his Omega detector from his pocket, Slippy looked on curiously before the Doctor spoke up.

"Slippy," he began, still pressing buttons on his toy, "do you happen to know anything about Omega radiation?"

"Uhh..." Slippy thought long and hard. "I do remember something. It was a documentary I watched once. It was just a theory though. Something about the radiation only becoming active after a certain time...?"

"Close." stated the Time Lord who was now waving the device in the air. "It's not a certain time, it's a certain distance."

The frog looked dumbstruck. "You mean, it's real?"

"Oh, yes. And I have a feeling that's what destroyed this planet. And Cerinia."

"But what about the other planets in this system?" asked Slippy. "Surely they'd be destroyed by now as well?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Nostallas and Cerinia were the only two habitable planets in Heragunet. And since there were people living on them, more emissions in the atmosphere. Not just from machinery and such; Cerinia wasn't quite as technologically advanced as, say, Corneria, but from life in general. The Omega radiation entered the atmosphere, now far enough away from the source to become active, and couldn't escape. It built up and up, until the energy physically ignited the atmosphere, burning everything and suffocating what's left."

Had the Doctor explained such a thing to Fox or Falco, they would have scratched their heads and said "What?", but Slippy was at least able to understand a little of what the Time Lord was saying.

"So the source, probably a star, fired Omega radiation at these planets, which got trapped in the atmosphere and burnt them," confirmed Slippy. "So, what did you need me for?"

"One, you can understand me when I talk," joked the Doctor, causing a slight grin on his part, "and two, you might be able to tell me about any known sources of the Omega radiation."

"Hmm... let's see... in the Heragunet system, there's-"

"No, no, no. Too close. It'd have to be... oh, I dunno... a good fifty light years away."

After a few seconds, the Doctor paused before turning to Slippy, whose face was frozen. "Slippy?"

"We...we figured out that C-cerinia was about fifty light years away from us... in Lylat..."

The Doctor's eyes widened in realisation. "Solar..."

He reached for his sonic screwdriver, as the same time asking "You don't happen to know the standard Proclamation co-ordinates of Lylat, do you?"

Slippy responded with an utterly confused look which the Doctor was expecting.

"OK, plan B. Do you have any sort of... link, a... a connection that we can lock onto to find Lylat?"

"Well, there's ROB..."

"ROB? Who's that?"

"Well, he's a navigation robot that Fox inherited from his father. We have a direct connection to him through our comm. links, but I don't-"

"That'll do nicely! Let's see then?"

Slippy sighed and held out his wrist communicator while the Doctor put his glasses on. The Time Lord examined it for a while before pointing the sonic screwdriver at it, and then his Omega detector. A greenish light flickered on the device as various readings revealed themselves to the Doctor's extremely worried face.

"That's not good."

Presently, the Doctor sprinted back into the TARDIS, with a slightly slower Slippy on his tail. The Time Lord saw Fox standing beside Krystal who was seated in the jump seat behind the console, while Falco was busying himself with his communicator. "Feeling better, Krystal?" he asked.

The vixen nodded in reply, while the Doctor jammed the Omega detector in a space in the console. "Good, cause we're off again. Hold tight!"

The Doctor released the ignition lever and the TARDIS was once again tearing through the time vortex. Fox and Krystal were holding on to some nearby pillars, having heard the warning, but Falco didn't seem to notice the Doctor's advice and had been thrown to the floor. "Doctor!" he yelled angrily, while struggling to stay steady on the metal grilled floor of the ship. The Doctor laughed and whooped as he almost bounced around the console, as per usual, to keep her running smoothly. There was a lurch in particular which made the TARDIS jolt exceedingly, but the cause was seemingly fixed with a little 'concussive maintenance'.

"Are you sure you should be hitting it with a hammer?" Krystal shouted; it was the only way to be heard over the racket produced by the TARDIS and everything in it.

"Oh, its fine. It's not like I've broken anything." When a part of the console fell off and Krystal was about to speak, the Doctor raised a finger and said "Yes, I know, I know. I'll fix it later."

When the TARDIS finally came to a halt, Falco removed himself from the floor, smoothed his feathers and glared at the Doctor.

"What?" asked the Time Lord.

When Falco said nothing, the Doctor turned to Slippy. "Right, I need you to go and research any modifications or changes or projects or anything to do with Solar. I'll join you in a minute, just need to check something first."

Slippy nodded and hastened out of the TARDIS into the garage of the Great Fox. The Doctor, still at the console, tapped a few buttons which brought up the details of their time and location. Unfortunately, it was in the Lylat calendar. "Fox, what year was it... well is it now?"

"Uh, 10-K-328. Or... uh... 10328." replied Fox, now looking a little confused.

The Doctor was transfixed by the apparent date. Krystal partially sensed this in the Time Lord. "Doctor, is something wrong?"

"If your present is 10328, then I've gone and landed two years early.". He abruptly looked up. "And Slippy's outside..."

The toad was staring quizzically at his surroundings. _Funny, this looks just like the garage on the old Great Fox..._

At that very moment, his eyes rested on something which challenged his rational thought even more. Himself.

The past Slippy was sleeping in the corner of the garage, and present Slippy could not take his eyes off him.

Slippy heard the Doctor calling behind him. "Slippy, we've landed too early, I'll explain later, but you need to get back or the whole fabric of time and space could be altered."

Still, the frog did not move.

"Slippy, get back in the TARDIS!" yelled the Doctor, now genuinely worried.

This brought the frog to his senses as he clumsily stumbled backwards and into the TARDIS. The Doctor immediately took off, the ever-present sound of time itself guiding the TARDIS to temporal safety.

Just then, past Slippy woke up, and he could have sworn he saw a pulsing light on the other side of the garage. _And, what's a TARDIS?..._

In the TARDIS itself, Slippy stumbled onto the main walkway only to be cast aside by the ship's jolts as it travelled once again.

"What was that all about?" inquired Falco.

"I landed two years too early and sent Slippy outside." the Doctor answered without looking away from the console, particularly the area around which the Omega detector was connected. "If he so much as touched his past self, there would be a rupture in time, space, and everything. And it wasn't pretty last time it happened. Anyway, what date was it when we left?"

The Doctor's question was answered only with four confused faces staring at him. "You mean, this thing can travel in time?" asked Falco.

"Oh, yes! Didn't I tell you?"

"Na, you didn't. But yeah, it wasn't really that important that Slippy nearly caused a rip in time an-"

"Now, hold on a minute," the Doctor interrupted. "If anyone's gonna take the blame for that, it's me. You really should give him a bit more credit! He's a genius, and you all know it! Now, Fox and Krystal do appreciate him, but you, you just put him down every time you see him. Do me a favour, and give it a rest, will you?"

For perhaps the first time in his life (aside from confrontations with one Katt Monroe), Falco was at a loss for a retaliation. He simply stood there, beak wide open, while the Doctor folded his arms, further enhancing his little speech.

Fox and Krystal were just as dumbstruck. They both knew how Falco treated Slippy, but aside from scolding him at the time, they would, and could, do nothing about it. But now that the Doctor had pointed it out in front of everyone, they looked upon him with a newfound respect.

The frog in question glanced between Falco and the Doctor. He had grown used to all the harassment that Falco had given him, so it didn't really concern him anymore. Although, he was glad that the Time Lord did what he did; it really cornered Falco, which Slippy couldn't help but inwardly smirk at.

"Yes. Well. Anyway, date?"

"Oh, right." Fox quickly checked his wrist communicator. "General Lylat time, it's 64th of the 4th 10-K-328".

"Thank'ee much," the Doctor fed this information to the TARDIS, "and away we go!"

By now, the Star Fox team had the foresight to grab hold of something as the TARDIS once again accelerated through the time vortex. After another rough landing, the Doctor picked himself up and strode purposefully out of the TARDIS, yanking his overcoat from its usual resting place on the way.

The Doctor guided himself to the bridge and pulled a few stripped wires out of his pockets. By the time the others had caught up with him, he was already using the sonic screwdriver to fix several wires to the main console in the Great Fox.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" spluttered Fox, making his way towards the Doctor. "That's not a toy, you know."

"Oh, stop worrying. When have I ever done something wrong?"

"Well, you almost caused a rupture in ti-"

"Point taken, but seriously, calm down. It's only a temporary join; you'll never even notice it."

Fox wasn't so sure. As the Doctor was connecting wires to the console, Fox asked "So, what is it you're doing to my ship, exactly?"

The Time Lord removed some wires from his mouth before replying. "Well, what I have here is an Omega radiation detector. I _think _that's what destroyed those planets, but I need to be sure. And if I hook this thing up to the Great Fox, it acts as a massive antenna to boost the reception! Genius, if I don't say so myself. Which I do." the Doctor added.

Slippy, after deliberating this for a while, spoke up. "Doctor, you said that the Omega radiation only becomes active after a certain distance, so how can that thing measure it?"

The Doctor swivelled around and grinned at Slippy. "Well, y'know the way my TARDIS is bigger on the inside?" After a succession of nods, the Time Lord continued. "Well, it just so happens that this thing is too so th-"

Slippy finished the Doctor's explanation for him, catching on quickly. "The particles enter the box, go the certain distance to become active and then the box measures it!"

The Doctor, partially stunned, turned slowly to Fox, jerked his thumb at Slippy and asked "Can I keep him?"

Fox laughed and shook his head. "No chance. He's our brainbox, and we'd be stuck without him." After the Doctor's little speech back on the TARDIS, Fox felt compelled to show a bit more appreciation to Slippy. The frog in question blushed at Fox's remark before a succession of beeps drew their attention to the box that the Doctor was holding.

"_Here _we go!" urged the Time Lord as he fiddled with various settings on the box before turning slightly to his left and pointing the box in the general direction of the system's star.

"Yep, definitely Omega radiation coming from here..." he muttered to himself. "But why..."

Falco, growing impatient, as always, cleared his throat. The Doctor turned around to see a half-asleep avian with his wings folded. "Well, now what?"

The Doctor turned back to his box for a second before addressing Falco again.

"You seem to be the adventurous type; you up for a little trip to Solar?"


	7. Run

"So," mused Falco, "taking us to Solar, eh?"

"Yep," replied the Doctor, popping the 'p'. "We need to find out _why _it's giving off Omega radiation. And why it _has _been for so long."

Fox spoke up. "Last time we were on Solar, we had to take down Andross' bioweapon. Jeez, it was roasting! We-"

"A bioweapon?" asked the Doctor, an intrigued look on his face. Fox clenched his fists, inhaled slowly and exhaled slowly. "Yes, Doctor, a bioweapon." His tone was that of mild anger, but mostly exasperation.

"So, Andross put a bioweapon on the surface of Solar? How on earth... er, in Lylat?" he asked himself, before continuing, "did he do that?"

Fox shrugged. "Don't ask me. All I know is that he put it there, and we destroyed it. End of."

"But," the Doctor started, "why?" He promptly answered his own question. "Well, we'll find out when we get there! Brilliant! When can we leave?"

Slippy took over. "Well, if you took those wires off the controls, we could get going soon!"

The Doctor took a look at the spaghetti of wires behind him. "Ah. Yes. Sorry."

The Time Lord immediately began removing the wires from the console. Once he was finished Slippy called on ROB for help.

"I was fixing him up in the comms room before you arrived, so you probably haven't seen him yet."

The Doctor shook his head before stepping back, allowing him to adjust various transportation controls.

"So, the infamous ROB. ROB the robot! How original, don't you think?"

"I am known as ROB 64. I am, as you would say, the 'one and only'."

Aside from Slippy, everyone turned to face the robot with smiles on their faces. Not least the Doctor, grinning broadly at the marvel of technology. ROB mechanically strode onto the bridge before stopping in front of the Time Lord

"You actually have a ship-piloting, self-conscious robot with a sarcasm chip? Oh, I want one!" exclaimed the Doctor, not unlike a child.

ROB seemingly ignored him. "Warning. Scanners indicate that unknown being is not of Lylat origin. I highly recommend a-"

Fox waved a hand at the robot. "No, it's fine ROB. This is the Doctor and, apparently, he's going to save Solar."

The Doctor turned to face Fox, a mock frown on his face. "Oh, don't say that! Now I _have _to fix it!"

"Are you referring to the Omega radiation originating from Solar?" asked ROB in his usual monotonous voice.

"How'd you know about that?" inquired the Doctor.

"A foreign device used me as a co-ordinate fix; I identified its origin and function. I also downloaded memory files and readings taken from the device."

"OH, you _are _clever! You haven't..." the Doctor suddenly seemed uneasy. "You haven't... you know... got a brain in there... like a real one or anything?"

"Negative. Merely a compact hard drive with subfluctuating coprocessors to enhance the natural ability to think and reason. My circuits mostly consist of pentinary codes with-"

"With rhutiform integrated desolisor chips, yes, yes. It's just... last time I faced robots... well, sort of robots, people robots, but not really, ANYWAY, point is, they had a human brain and nervous system inside them, and it wasn't too-"

"Query, Doctor:" ROB interrupted. "What is the definition of the adjective 'human'?"

"Oh." The Doctor's face now proudly wore an impossible grin. Krystal could sense his mood soaring into the skies.

"Humans," he began "are the most fantastic race of people in the universe! Yes, they're a little stupid at times, but they always survive. Always. And that's what makes them brilliant! They adapt to anything and everything. Of course, they're the vessels for some universe-dominating catastrophe from time to time, but I love 'em. Oh, yes!" He had been wandering around the room as he said it, his arms flailing almost as majestically as his speech. He stopped and looked at Fox. "Oh, and they all look like me, by the way."

ROB pointed to the Doctor's chest. "Do all 'humans' have a binary vascular system?"

"Uh, no," said the Doctor, somewhat sulkily. "No, that's just me."

"Wait," mused Slippy. "Binary vascular? You've got-"

"Two hearts..." Krystal finished, somewhat bemused.

"Well, I also own a little blue box that travels through time and space, so it's hardly that surprising," admitted the Doctor with a chuckle. "Come on! Too much chit-chat! What we need is a bit less of this," the Doctor mimicked a mouth with his hands, "and a bit more of that!" he exclaimed, pointing towards Solar.

"Well said, my man!" chirped Falco. "You heard the guy, Foxie, let's get out there and... uh... look at Solar?"

Falco realised just how boring it was going to be.

"Yeah, pretty much. Sorry, Falco." The Doctor wheeled around to ROB. "RIGHT, let's get this thing moving! We need it in orbit around Solar, as close as possible, so we can use it as an observation deck of sorts. When can-"

"Excuse me, Doctor, but my databases contain information on a registered observation craft currently orbiting Solar. Might I suggest you visit that ship rather than move this one?"

The Doctor simply stared slightly disbelievingly at the robot, before returning to his normal self. "Well, that helps. But if it's in orbit, how are we gonna find it?"

"The observation ship constantly transmits a partially encrypted signal, transferring information of their studies to Corneria."

The Time Lord grinned at ROB. "And I could, oh I dunno, track that signal and find that ship! You are a genius, ROB!"

"Compliment registered," ROB informed him, without any change in voice or emotion.

"Excellent. Now," he began, turning to face Falco, Slippy, Fox and Krystal. "Guys, I reckon a few Arwings would come in handy if we had to actually get close and personal with Solar, so dya think we could spare a few? I've only room for two, though."

Fox thought for a moment, unlike Falco. "Well, I'm taking mine. I'll take the skies any day."

The vulpine had finished his musing. "Probably be best if I take mine too."

"Alright then, you guys head to the garage and I'll get the TARDIS!"

The Doctor sprinted from the bridge, obviously brimming with excitement.

"Wrong way, Doctor!" Fox called, heading towards the garage.

The Time Lord spun around to face the right way. "Well, was bound to happen sooner or later."

* * *

Much pushing, shoving and button-flicking later, the two Arwings were safely aboard the TARDIS as it landed rather violently on the observation ship.

The Doctor stepped out, fixing his hair a little. "Ouch. That was a rough landing. Must've been the extra weight. Sorry."

Fox stepped out of the TARDIS, followed by Krystal. The pair did look slightly shaken, but Falco and Slippy were decidedly worse. Unfortunately for them both, they had knocked their heads together during the transition. Falco exited the box, caressing his head with his hand. "Yeah, nice flying there, Doc!"

"Oh, don't," the Doctor complained, a cringing look on his face. "Don't call me 'Doc', just don't." He winced a little as some painful memories cane back to him. "And never, EVER, dress up as Daffy Duck at a Warner Bros. convention. Ever."

"What are you on about now?" asked Fox.

"Oh, never mind."

By then, Slippy had left the TARDIS, the door closing behind him. "Alright, now we've got to find whoever's running this joint." The Doctor stopped, seemingly appalled at his own language. "I think you're rubbing off on me, Falco."

"Hey!" the avian protested.

The Time Lord ignored Falco and walked to the left upon impulse. The ship was massive, so they had their work cut out.

"Found it," stated Slippy, confidently.

"Really?" asked the Doctor.

"Found what?" Krystal inquired.

"The bridge. I connected my wrist comm. to this ship's network, and I've full access to the maps. It's the next corridor on the right."

"Nicely done, Slippy!" exclaimed the Doctor, taking Slippy's specified route.

After a short meander, the team finally arrived. "Well, here we are!" Slippy announced.

Krystal, her eyes closed, spoke up. "There are two people in there. Researchers, I think."

As they cautiously made their way towards the doors, they opened automatically, revealing two white-coat-clad researchers working on something. "Oh, Gary, did you get the samples?" One of the scientists, a male orang-utan- rare even by Lylatian standards- turned to face them. "We've been getting some strange-" He stopped as his eyes rested on the five individuals who had just stepped through the bridge door. "You're not Gary..."

"No, we are not," confirmed the Doctor, pulling the psychic paper from his pocket. "However, I _am _Dr. John Smith of the... uh... Radiology department of the... uh..." The Time Lord scoured his mind for a genuine Lylatian location. "Katina!" he yelled triumphantly. "Yes... of the Katina University?" he wondered. He hoped to goodness that Katina University really existed.

"Really? Well, that's a blessing!" exclaimed the researcher, causing a sigh of relief from the Doctor. "My name is Ross," he said, offering his paw to the Doctor, who shook it. "Ross Primale, head of this investigation and frankly, we're in need of an expert."

"Oh, is that so? Well, it just so happens that I'm the head of the department... hence the... fur loss." At this point, the Doctor waved a hand around his face and arms.

"I see. Those must be massive amounts of radiation you're working with to cause fur loss of that degree. Aside from the head, it seems."

"Yes... I have no idea why that's happened, but oh well. Anyway, what would you be needing an expert for?"

"Ah, yes. If you would, we have obtained some strange readings from Solar, yet contradicting results from specific matter samples taken from the surface. Would you be so kind as to take a look?"

"It'd be my pleasure!" He quickly looked over his shoulder at the four bemused pilots behind him. "Just play along!" he mouthed.

"You see," Ross continued, leading himself and the Doctor towards some databases on a computer screen. The Doctor donned his glasses to take a look. "We sent some probes out to the surface to pick out some samples, and they all seem to be giving off rather large amounts of energy."

"When you say 'energy', isn't that what it's supposed to give off?"

While the Time Lord and the physicist were discussing various methods of energy transfer, some apparently new to the orang-utan, Fox, Falco, Slippy and Krystal were left to stand and watch.

Krystal realised that the other scientist had been silent since they arrived. She edged her way over to him and saw that he was a young ape, no older than twenty, who had a likeness to Andrew Oikonny. She shrugged, assuming a distant relationship and tapped the ape on the shoulder. He jumped at the contact and spun around.

"Oh! Oh... uh... hello."

"Hello!" Krystal greeted, smiling as she sensed the ape's nervousness. "I'm Krystal." She courteously offered her paw.

Taking the offered paw and shaking it, the researcher replied. "I'm Dave... Dave Dex." he confessed, a sheepish smile edging over his face. He fingered his name badge which read 'Dave I. U. Dex: Trainee'.

Krystal just laughed. "You look very young to be working with the head of an operation, even as a trainee."

Dave shrugged. "They took me on as soon as I finished school. I really don't agree, but I've been told that I'm exceptionally bright for my age." At this point, he leant closer to Krystal so that Ross wouldn't hear him. "Some people say I'm even smarter than Ross here, but as I said, I disagree."

"Well, at least you're modest."

Dave smiled at that. Slippy wandered over beside the pair. "Hey, Krystal." He then looked awkwardly at Dave. "Who's this then?"

The ape shuffled forward a bit. "I-I'm Dave. Nice to meet you... uh..."

"Slippy. Slippy Toad. What you working on there, by the way?"

Dave's eyes sparkled as he began doing what he did best. He explained the results of his sample test to Slippy and Krystal, while Fox and Falco stood by the door.

"Man, this blows," Falco whined. "When are we gonna see some action again?"

"Look, just be patient," the vulpine almost scolded. "I've a feeling that this could help us figure out why Andross put that bioweapon there."

"Why are you still thinking about that? It's over; he's dead."

"Yeah, but..." Fox stared into space. "Just that connection between Andross and dad."

Falco decidedly remained silent, instead choosing to concentrate on the Doctor's conversation with Ross.

"And you've seen this activity in how many samples?"

"Every single one to date. All taken from different points on Solar's surface, all giving off the same amount of power relative to their mass, approximately 67 megaFors for a three dreb sample, and so we're stuck."

The Doctor realised what was wrong. "Because, by all means, Solar should have exploded a long time ago."

"And yet, all this energy seems to disappear. There are no other energy extrusions in or around it, aside from heat and light, as far as we can tell. But even with that output, we've calculated that twice as much energy is being produced; we have no idea where it's going."

"Well, there's..." The Doctor stopped when he realised that Omega radiation had not been discovered in Lylat, at least fully, yet. "There are other ways which that energy could be converted or dissipated, but I'd need to actually get inside Solar which, if I'm honest, isn't about to happen."

"Well," the orang-utan mused, stroking his ginger beard, "Gary should have obtained controlled samples from fifty tags below Solar's surface. Is that a sufficient depth for a sample?"

"It'll do for now, I suppose." The Time Lord motioned towards Dave, who was enthusiastically chatting away to Slippy and Krystal. "By the way, who's that?"

The Doctor thought he heard a low growl in Ross' throat. "Oh, that's Dave Dex. Cornerian Government appointed him as my assistant."

"He looks very young," the Doctor commented.

The orang-utan whispered under his breath. "Too young, if you ask me..."

"What was that?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing."

The Doctor wasn't so sure. "Well, where is Gary then?"

"If he's not on the way here, then he should be in the lab. You can follow the signs to it, if you'd rather not wait."

"Alright then!" The Doctor turned to leave, before pointing back at Ross. "Oh, and thanks for the help."

"Not a problem, Mr. Smith."

"Oh, and just call me Doctor."

Ross seemed confused. "Doctor?"

"Yeah, it's a nickname of sorts... anyway, best be off!" He noticed Fox and Falco by the door, looking somewhat bored. "Coming?"

The avian sighed. "Why not?" He followed the Doctor out the door, with Fox trailing behind him.

"So, how come that Ross guy didn't say anything about Omega radiation?" asked Fox.

"Ah," replied the Time Lord. "Well, you lot haven't discovered it yet..."

"And your people have?" After a nod from the Doctor, he continued. "Well, why didn't you just tell him?"

"Because," the Doctor sighed, "I don't want to risk altering the course of Lylat's history... well... your future."

Falco looked confused. "I'll never understand you."

"Good. The less you know, the safer you are. Aha! The lab. Laboratory. Labarababaralabara-"

"CAN WE PLEASE just go inside?" Falco half yelled.

"Alright, alright!" He eyed Falco's head. "Keep your feathers on."

As with the bridge, the doors opened automatically to reveal a horse with his back turned, apparently doing nothing.

"Ah, you must be Gary. Ross wanted you to-"

The Doctor was cut off when Gary fell to the floor, revealing an insect-like robot with a sole pink eye.

"Fox," Falco began, genuinely worried. "That there looks just a bit like an Aparoid."

"To be honest with you, Falco," came the reply, "I think it is."

The suspected Aparoid switched its focus between the three beings in front of it.

"That there followed me through the time vortex," claimed the Doctor. "And you said it's called, what, an Aparoid?"

"Yeah," confirmed Fox. "Remember I told you about the war we fought against them? That looks exactly like one of them."

"In that case, I'm gonna have to say something which you'll probably hear quite a lot from me."

"And what's that?" asked Falco.

The Aparoid inched forward.

"RUN!"


	8. The Deep End

SchmEthan here:

YES!!! I'm BACK!!!! It's Easter, and I've been kinda bored (and not wanting to study), so I've decided to start this one up again. Don't be counting on too many updates, this is just one I got finished. AND, as a SUPER SPECIAL TREAT, I've updated the rest of the chapters to make them less cringable! = D

Thanks to all you guys out there who wanted me to continue. It's not much, but HERE IT IS!! = D

As always, feel free to review. I may have got a little rusty in my hiatus, so a bit of criticism would be nice, for once...

SchmEthan

* * *

"So, you see, we're a bit stuck," confessed Dave.

"Yeah..." muttered Slippy, knowing full well why the researchers were achieving the results they were.

"Well, there must be _some _explanation!" Krystal pointed out.

"And that's why we're here!" the ape beamed. "So far, we've only been able to obtain readings from the surface. But our co-worker, Gary, should have a sample from fifty tags below Solar's surface."

The trio, as well as Ross, stood silently for a minute as each struggled to hear the thundering pawsteps (and footsteps) coming from the corridor. Before long, they were no longer struggling, as the source burst through the door in a flurry of panic and sweat.

Ross didn't seem too pleased by the intrusion. "What exactly do you hope to achieve, bursting through the door in that manner?"

The Doctor shot him a slightly exasperated look. "We hope to achieve a door between us and an unwelcome guest." He quickly swivelled around and sealed the door with the Sonic Screwdriver.

"And which unwelcome guest would this be?"

There was a colossal BANG as the 'unwelcome guest' attempted to join them, leaving a considerable dent in the door.

"That one. And I'm sorry, but it killed Gary."

A tide of shock crept over the party, with the exception of Fox and Falco, who were instead overcome by raw fear.

"Why the hell didn't we bring blasters?" asked Falco, somewhat afraid.

"Because," replied Fox, "we thought we were going to be 'looking at Solar'."

BANG

"Hold on..." Dave interrupted, "what's out there, exactly?"

The Doctor gave him the answer. This answer, for reasons unknown to him, made everyone who wasn't already aware gasp in disbelief. "An Aparoid."

"Aparoids?!" Ross half-screamed. "I thought Star Fox destroyed them!"

BANG

"I thought we destroyed them too..." admitted Fox.

It took Ross a moment to decode the vulpine's response, after which his jaw fell open. "You-you're Fox McCloud?"

"The very same. And that's Falco, that's Slippy and that's Krystal." He gestured to each of his teammates in turn.

"So, I have here, in my presence, the entire Star Fox squadron?"

"Wow," the Doctor remarked, "you guys _are_ famous."

BANG

Ross' gape was now directed towards the Time Lord. "They've saved the Lylat system three times now! Three!"

"Yes, yes. And on one of those occasions, they saved it from that?"

The Doctor jerked his thumb towards the door and cued another BANG from the Aparoid.

"Ah, yes..." Ross realised. "The Aparoid."

"So, what do we do?" inquired Krystal.

"As far as I can tell, that's the only door out of here..." said Slippy.

"Well, on the plus side, it's not getting in for a while," the vixen observed. "There's a huge dent in the door!"

"Which also means we can't get out," sighed Fox.

The Doctor raised a finger. "But doors don't have to be doors!"

BANG

"...Sorry?" Falco asked, confused.

"Ways out aren't necessarily doors, are they? I mean, I've used doors, windows, collapsed buildings, fireplaces, mirrors, teleporters, blue boxes, floors, lift shafts, ladders and bananas before!"

"Isn't that just great for you?" came the sarcastic reply.

"Well, at least he's got a point," Fox mused. "Are there any other ways to get out of here?"

"If we had our blasters or any other crap we could use the emergency teleports," Falco half-spat. "But, of course, we don't. Not even the teleport boxes."

"What," the Doctor began, fumbling in his pockets to pull out several rectangular objects, "these?"

Everyone present couldn't help but stare at him with a mixture of relief, confusion and the wonder at how they could possibly fit inside his pockets.

"They'll do nicely," Slippy interjected, relieving the Time Lord of the teleport boxes. "They're only short range though; the Great Fox is too far away."

The Doctor hung his head to the side as he half-smiled, half-sighed at Slippy. "And what made you think we're going back there?"

Krystal picked up on this. "Sorry?"

"I, for one, am not going anywhere until I know exactly what that thing is, where it's come from, who's controlling it and why it was able to follow me here."

"I don't suppose you could drop us home then?" Falco joked.

"I'll need everyone for this. Even you two." He pointed at Dave and Ross.

"But," Ross started, pausing for a moment, "what can I do? I mean, I'm only a researcher! And that... that thing's killed Gary and is outside right now!"

"Come to think of it..." mused Dave. "Why's it stopped banging?"

"Ohhh..." mouthed the Doctor as he stared towards the dent in the door. "Good point. And if it's stopped, that could mean one of two things."

"Either it's given up and gone home..." suggested Falco.

Krystal suddenly looked up with a gasp. Everyone followed her gaze to find a small air vent in the ceiling. There was a faint rattling sound echoing through the system. Faint, but definite.

"Or it's finding another way in..." concluded Fox.

"But, Aparoids don't even have the intellectual capacity to open a door!" exclaimed Slippy.

"Aparoid or not, I think we'd better get out of here now!" the Doctor almost ordered. "Slippy, can you teleport us all out of here at once?"

The toad shook his head while biting his lower lip. "These are one-body teleporters only. We only have five, so we'll have to make two runs."

"It's getting closer!" Krystal warned the party. "I can hear it..." Her expression suddenly changed to one of wonder. "It's..."

"Right!" The Doctor shouted, making sure he was heard. "Fox, Falco, Slippy, Krystal and Dave; you five go first. Just out to the TARDIS, OK?" After this was confirmed and subsequently programmed into the teleporters by Slippy, the Doctor withdrew a long chain from his pocket. "Use this to get in." He handed it to Fox rather hurriedly as Slippy handed out the teleporters.

"I'll bring two more back for you guys," Falco offered.

"OK, get out-" the Time Lord was cut off by a dark coloured claw that had torn through the ceiling like paper and was starting to cut an entry to the bridge.

"Get out now!" The Doctor screamed while herding Ross, who seemed to be frozen with fear, into the corner.

"OK, team, Dave," Fox nodded at each person in turn. "NOW!"

The five disappeared in a bright blue light as The Doctor did his best to protect Ross from the pieces of torn metal that were careening across the room.

"You alright, Ross?" questioned the Time Lord.

The Doctor's face turned quizzical as he heard the orang-utan muttering "TAR... TARDIS... TAR..."

"Ross!" he shouted, shaking his shoulders slightly.

Ross shook his head before turning to face the Doctor. "Sorry, I... I think I... I don't know..."

"That's OK, just stay with us for a bit, alright?"

There was a colossal smash as an unnerving pink eye dropped from the ceiling, along with half the body of an Aparoid. Fortunately, it got stuck halfway down the hole.

At that point, Falco appeared again, carrying three boxes in his hand. "Hurry it up; these things won't last much longer!" he warned, throwing two of the boxes to the Doctor.

The Time Lord caught the two boxes at the other end and gave one to Ross. "OK, what now?"

"Green button, press and hold it!" Falco yelled as the Aparoid freed itself and hurtled towards the Doctor at a high speed.

"NOW!" Falco yelled, causing everyone to press the buttons and disappear.

The Aparoid seemed rather confused at this, before taking quite an interest in the floor where the Doctor had once been. After a considerable amount of time, almost as quickly as it had descended, it crawled back up the wall and through the hole in the ceiling.

* * *

Falco, Ross and the Doctor arrived beside the TARDIS with a jolt through their bodies. Both Falco and the Doctor were used to such transportation methods, but it took Ross a moment to come to his senses. During this time, the Doctor noticed that he could do nothing but stare at the TARDIS.

_That's odd... _he thought to himself. He snapped his fingers a few times in front of the orang-utan's face. "Ross! Ross!"

Ross took a huge gasp for air as he regained control of himself again. "Whoa..."

"Ross, are you alright?" asked the Doctor, remembering where he had seen this before.

"Y-yes..." was the weak reply, "I'm fine. This has never happened before... But please, don't let me slow you down."

The Doctor smiled at his apparent selflessness. "Thanks, Ross. It's probably just the teleport, don't worry about it." The door of the TARDIS opened behind him as Fox dragged Falco inside. The Time Lord took his cue and followed the avian, hauling a still-dazed Ross behind him.

When they were all safely inside the TARDIS, the Doctor slammed the door shut, relieved himself of his overcoat and immediately began bouncing around the control panel.

"Uhh... Doctor," Krystal chimed, "where are we going?"

The Doctor turned around, his face grave. "We're going into Solar."


	9. Surfboards and Revelations

"We're going _into _Solar? Like, _inside _it?" Fox asked, utterly bemused.

The Doctor stopped flicking the TARDIS's controls for a second and looked at the vulpine. "Well, I say 'we'. I _really _mean you and Falco."

This caught the attention of the avian. "Whoa whoa whoa..." he panicked. "_Into _Solar? That thing's nine thousand degrees on the _surface_! We'll be roast dinner as soon as we get there!"

The Doctor let out a knowing grin. "With your shields, probably. But not with mine."

Krystal wore a confused expression. "We're in a wooden box. What good's that against the heat of Solar?"

"Never mind the wooden box..." Dave struggled to say, "where did we go? This place is _huge_."

The Doctor slapped himself on the forehead. "Oh right... Slippy, would you mind?" he inquired, gesturing to the frog.

"I'd love to!" Slippy beamed, and brought Dave and the still silent Ross over to the entrance of the TARDIS to explain its 'bigger on the inside' feature.

The Doctor, with no further speech, immediately pulled some panels up from beneath the console and disappeared from view.

Fox looked a little concerned at the Doctor's actions. "You alright down there?"

"'Course!" came the muffled reply amongst the rattles and bangs that were coming from the belly of the control room. A few seconds later, the Doctor shot back up, surprising Falco and Fox, with what looked like a surfboard made of metal, wires, and partly coral.

"What in Lylat is that?" asked Krystal, as calmly as she could.

"This," The Doctor stated, slamming the surfboard against the console and kicking the panel back into place with his feet, "is the Extrapolator."

"Somehow, you've managed to confused me more," Falco admitted.

"Well, this was originally designed to protect anyone around it, and one of the Slitheen was going to blow up the Earth and surf safely away on this thing. But she failed, turned into an egg and went back home. Meanwhile, I took the Extrapolator, and plugged it into the TARDIS, and it made for some excellent shields, even stopped weak Dalek fire! I know I wasn't planning to launch you into Solar, but the circumstances have changed a little. Now that I've tweaked the energy settings, this baby can survive pretty much anything! Except those turny egg timer things. Makes it go to sleep, for some reason."

After he had finished his explanation, the Time Lord looked around his TARDIS to find six faces staring at him blankly, not an ounce of understanding between them.

The Doctor simplified his explanation. "Surfboard make shield! Shield good!"

"Thank you, oh great Doctor," Fox groaned sarcastically. "But there's only one of that thing, and two more of us."

"Ah, but you see, I plugged it into the TARDIS!" the Doctor observed. "So, naturally, the TARDIS started to grow around it. And look!" The Time Lord flipped the extrapolator over to reveal many miniature versions of the surfboard covered in the same creamy coral that the TARDIS was constructed from. "Baby extrapolators!" Without warning, or mercy, he began ripping the offspring from the parent.

Slippy was eager to learn more about the TARDIS. "This thing _grows_?"

"Of course!" came the simple reply, to the frog's dismay.

Ross, seemingly recovered from his previous state, spoke. "So you're going to send Fox McCloud and Falco Lombardi straight into Solar on those things?"

"Oh no, that would be stupid. Idiotic, almost." With one last heave, the Doctor managed to dislodge two of the smaller extrapolators from the original. "If I can plug the big one into the TARDIS, Slippy and I can definitely plug the small ones into the Arwings!"

The team's faces lit up as they finally understood what the manic Time Lord was doing.

Krystal, concerned for her teammates- especially Fox- asked "Are you sure those things will be enough? It looks pretty hot to me..."

"Oh yes, I've flown through a fleet of missiles and lived, they'll be fine!" The Time Lord assured the vixen.

"Why are we going into Solar, anyway?" Fox pondered.

The Doctor was presently pressing a few buttons on the console. "Well, that thing's emitting vast amounts of Omega radiation which killed Nostallas and, as far as we know, Cerinia-" With that statement, the Time Lord turned to Krystal and gave her an apologetic look. Fox also looked over, the same look of sympathy on his face. Krystal smiled weakly at him, which brought courage and a renewed confidence in the mission. "But not only that; these Aparoids seem to have intelligence far beyond their capabilities, and I've got a feeling that Solar holds the answers," The Doctor finished. He turned to Fox and Falco, armed with the shield generators. "Ready?" he almost dared.

Slippy, armed with the challenge and the pleasure of further upgrading the Arwings, yelled "Ready!" before anyone could stop him.

"Ready," confirmed Falco, always up for an adventure into the unknown.

"Ready," Fox boldly announced, with Krystal's terrible history in his mind.

"Then let's go!" The Doctor dashed off into the belly of the TARDIS, with Slippy, Fox and Falco trailing him. The other three bodies could only wait as their friends, teammates and heroes readied to make their way into the heart of Solar.

* * *

The TARDIS's whirring noise was lost in the vacuum of the space in which it materialised. A Time Lord head poked out of the door to check that everything was clear. A frog's head followed it out, as well as a vixen's, an orang-utan's and a primate's. Solar's orange-red glow fell on their faces as they looked on at the massive sphere of flames in awe.

Ross struggled to understand the situation. "But we're in space... How can we breathe? And if we're this close to Solar, why is there no heat? And how can we see? We should be blinded!"

"That's the Extrapolator," replied the Time Lord. "Keeps breathable air inside it, blocks any radiation which isn't light, and dims the latter so that we can safely see it. Which is exactly why the boys are gonna need the baby versions."

Krystal stared at the beautiful thing in front of her, but couldn't help but be wary. "I'm still not sure about this..."

"Don't worry," assured Dave, "the Doctor seems to know what he's doing."

"That I do, Dave. That I do."

The five heads shot back inside and the door closed once again. The TARDIS's exterior shook violently before the doors flung open once again, this time to allow two Arwings to soar into Solar's proximity. Fox and Falco checked their systems, including their recently-added bubble shields, gave a small nod to each other across the comms. and set a course for Solar.

In the control room, The Doctor, Krystal, Slippy, Dave and Ross watched the mission through the eyes of Fox and Falco on the TARDIS's monitor. The group could see Solar swelling in size on the screen as the pair approached it.

"Even I'm starting to get the jitters," admitted Falco, without altering his course.

"Hey, it's worth a shot," Fox suggested. "The Doctor wouldn't send us out unless he knew it was important and safe, right Doctor?"

There was silence as most of the attention in the room was focused on said Time Lord. After a period of no replies, everyone in the TARDIS sheepishly looked back at the monitor as there were audible gulps from the Arwings' pilots. Everyone, except one orang-utan.

Ross was staring into nothingness, muttering. Krystal and Dave, too nervous to watch the monitor, turned their attention to Ross.

"Mr. Primale, are you alright?" Dave asked, concerned.

"Doctor..." Ross muttered. "Safe... Doctor..."

"Ross?" Krystal tried, waving her paw in front of the orang-utan. This seemed to throw him back into reality. He clutched his head and leaned against the railing behind him. "Wow..." he muttered. "What happened?"

"I don't know," admitted Krystal, unable to see into his mind at all, "you were just muttering the Doctor's name over and over."

"I..." Ross closed his eyes and thought for a moment. "I don't know what it is about him. Something rings a bell, but I can't think of it."

Dave rested a hand on Ross's shoulder. "Are you alright now?"

Almost disgusted by the contact, Ross brushed the hand off his shoulder. "I'm fine, Dave. Fine." With that, he walked over to the console to join Slippy and the Doctor in monitoring the mission. Krystal and Dave looked at the console and Ross, then at each other.

"Has he always been like this?" Krystal enquired.

"No, I've never seen him behave like this before," Dave admitted. "Only since Star Fox and the Doctor came along."

The two thought it best to concentrate on Fox and Falco at the present, and turned their attention to the mission, Solar now filling the entirety of the Arwings' vision.

"We're getting close, Doctor," Fox reported, manually adjusting his G-diffuser system.

"It's weird, I can hardly feel the heat at all," mused Falco. "Your shields must be holding up quite well, Doc."

The Doctor physically cringed at the abbreviation. "Will you _please_ stop calling me that?"

"Sorry, Doctor," Falco spat, with very little heart.

Fox was breathing more heavily now, and his heart rate had shot up in the last ten seconds of his descent. "Approaching surface in three-"

The Doctor gripped the bottom of the console.

"Two-"

Slippy covered his eyes while Krystal cast her thoughts and prayers out for Fox.

"One-"

Dave and Ross looked at each other, and then back at the monitor.

"Here we go!" Falco yelled, gripping his controls tightly.

The pair collided with the molten surface of Solar with a bone-crunching thud, but the manual adjustment of the G-diffuser systems by both parties allowed them to continue through the surface without harm. The first thing that the pair noticed was that the Extrapolators' shield was not only protecting them from the heat of Solar, but physically pushing its matter away from the Arwings, giving two bubbles of safe flying environment.

"Doctor, you're a genius," Fox conceded, correcting his flight path.

"Yeah, gotta admit, these bubble shields are pretty cool," seconded Falco.

The Doctor smiled at the pair's success. "What did I tell you, boys? Perfect! Not a problem." The Time Lord glanced over his shoulder at the relieved, surprised and awed passengers and grinned even further. "Alright, now you've gotta keep a look out. Anything... weird or strange. Anything that shouldn't be in there."

"Like what?" Falco asked.

"Something that looks like it's controlling a little Aparoid brain! Oh, and something that's blasting out a whole lot of Omega radiation, while you're at it."

"Please, Doctor," said Ross, "What in Lylat is Omega radiation?"

The Doctor paused for a moment before turning to face the orang-utan. "I was gonna try to keep that a secret, but you've just been introduced to trans-dimensional time travel, so I doubt it'll matter. _You_ haven't actually discovered it yet, but it's a kind of radiation that doesn't begin to ionise until it's a certain distance from the source."

"What do you mean we haven't discovered it? Surely Katina University would've informed us of any finds."

The Time Lord gave a nervous chuckle as he scratched the back of his head. "Here's the truth. I'm not from Katina University. I'm not even from Lylat. I'm from somewhere _much_ further away."

Dave, rather than looking shocked as Ross did, was overcome by intrigue. "You're an alien?"

"Yeah. An alien."

Ross stared in disbelief before returning his thoughts to more important matters. "But this Omega radiation. How can it possibly exist if we haven't detected it?"

"He _did _say that it doesn't start to ionise until it's a certain distance from the source," Dave pointed out. "About fifty light years, maybe?"

That caught the Doctor's attention. "How did you know that?"

"I didn't," admitted Dave. "But it sounds like ionising ability of the particles that it's giving off are affected by gravity and electromagnetic force, and both of those have a large effecting range. So the only feasible distance to overcome both of those forces would be around fifty light years.

"Dave, you're talking nonsense. How-"

"He's right," said the Doctor, in complete awe of what the primate had just been able to calculate.

Ross froze. "What?"

"That's _exactly _how Omega radiation works. You sure you haven't discovered it?"

"No, I've never heard of it until today. Although it does explain why Solar's producing almost twice as much energy as it's emitting."

Ross was irate at this point. "I- this-"

"Doctor!" came a shout through the Arwing comms. "I think I've found something," Fox reported.

"Yeah, my scanners have it too," confirmed Falco.

The Doctor spun around and checked the image on the monitor. "What is that?"

"It looks like a little box of some sort. It's just floating in the core."

"How big is it?"

"Big enough to stop us from dragging it out of here," Falco suggested helpfully.

The Doctor looked almost disappointed. "But I have to see it!"

"Then by all means, join us!" the avian invited sarcastically.

"Alright, then. Stop there."

"Sorry?" Falco wondered.

"You want us to stop?" asked Fox?

"Yes," the Doctor confirmed, already racing around the console. "I'm coming in. Just stay close, alright?"

There was silence over the comms. for a moment, before Fox spoke. "OK, Doctor."

"Excellent, see you in a bit!" The Time Lord muted the comms. and fiddled with a few more controls around the console, paying particular attention to the Extrapolator. "This one's gonna be tough, so everybody brace yourselves." Without further warning, he flicked the ignition lever and the TARDIS whirred into life, shaking violently as it did so. The lights of the control room flickered and sparks flew from the console as the ship hurtled towards the centre of Solar.

"Doctor!" Slippy yelled as he grabbed onto a railing, preventing him from being thrown sideways with the TARDIS's lurches. "What's happening?"

"There was a reason that I didn't want to have to go into Solar. The Extrapolator's using a lot of power to get Solar's matter out of the way, so the suspension's gone offline for a bit!" The Time Lord replied, still hurrying around the console to stabilise the materialisation.

When the movement finally stopped, and everyone regained their balance, The Doctor turned his attention back to the scanners. "Fox, Falco, are we close?" He checked the view of Fox's screen, in which a blue, wooden police box was just about to crush the nose of his Arwing.

"Bit too close for comfort, Doctor," Fox admitted, panting heavily at the surprise.

"Oops," the Time Lord squeaked. "But oh well!" He raced towards the door and grabbed his overcoat. "Come on, guys!"

"Actually," Krystal spoke softly, "I think I'll stay here."

Ross cleared his throat. "Me too. There's not a chance I'm going out there."

The Time Lord simply shrugged. "Suit yourself. You two still coming?" He gestured to Slippy and Dave, who were already running towards the door.

"You bet!" Slippy grinned.

"I really want to find out about this Omega radiation," admitted Ross.

The Doctor grinned at his companions' enthusiasm. "Allons-y!"

They slammed the door and stood with their mouths agape; partially due to the increased gravity, partially due to the scene which lay in front of them. With the two Arwings in such close proximity (one being in _very _close proximity), the Extrapolators' shields had combined into one large bubble, stretching far into the core of Solar, and also revealing a small, brown looking box a few metres below them.

Upon noticing his friends at the door, Fox opened the hatch of his Arwing and stood up in the cockpit followed shortly by Falco. "So what, we just jump?"

"No, no, no! Solar's gravity's far too strong for the dampers on the shields! You'll go right through 'em! But luckily, I've a way of getting around it." The Time Lord rummaged around in his pockets for a second before pulling out a small black and white object with a triumphant "ah-ha!"

Slippy one once again intrigued by the Doctor's endless supply of technology. "What does that one do, then?"

"This," the Time Lord stated, holding it up, "generates a small local gravitational field around any object it I want it to. I call it the _Gravitron._"

"Cool name," Dave said.

"Thank you," the Doctor replied. "At the moment, it and the Extrapolator are keeping us all gravitationally correct. but watch this, it's even cooler!" The Doctor pressed a few buttons and controls on the device before looking downwards and apparently aiming at the small box that was beneath them. With a grunt, he lobbed the Gravitron in the direction of said box, apparently missing be quite a lot, causing Falco to laugh from his standpoint in his Arwing.

The Doctor smirked as the group watched the Gravitron automatically correct its course and fall perfectly on the front of the box, a blinking green light appearing after a moment. He smirked and buried his hands in his pockets. "Now we jump." Without warning, he launched himself from the TARDIS and fell rapidly towards the box. Everyone looked down almost in horror as he sailed down towards it and landed with a thud. From what they could see, the Doctor only took up around a tenth of the box's surface area. "Well?" he yelled up to them?

Fox and Falco looked at each other before the latter decided to clamber out of his cockpit and leap, screaming as he did so. Fox followed suit, as did Slippy and Dave.

"Good luck, Fox..." Krystal called softly.

As the frog and the primate landed on the box, they realised that there was a cushioned layer of gravity to keep them from injury as they landed. The group looked around the brown-green box with ornate carvings and pictures on which they were standing, and saw that there was a door on the side face. The Doctor simply stepped off the edge as Fox's heart leapt into his mouth. Fortunately, he simply stepped onto the other face, albeit with a grave expression on his face.

"What's the matter, Doctor?" asked Slippy.

"I think I know what this box is," came the dismayed reply.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Falco chimed.

"Not if I'm right." The Doctor opened the door and clambered through the aperture, seeming to stand on the wall, from the companions' point of view.

"Doctor?" Dave called, curious.

Before he could reply, Fox and Falco were already making their way over the edge of the box and into the opening. Slippy followed, and then Dave decided to enter as well. As the primate stepped through the door, gravity shifted back to the floor, giving an upright orientation of the inside.

The much bigger inside.

"Cool," Falco muttered, oblivious to the situation.

"It's bigger on the inside... Again," Fox noted.

Slippy was beginning to get concerned. "Doctor, is t-"

"Yes, Slippy." The Doctor breathed. "It's a TARDIS."

* * *

SchmEthan here:

Wow. Just... wow. It's been, like, a YEAR since I've been on this thing...

BUTANYWAY, long story short, was reading some fics about old Ten, when I remembered that I still had a story left to finish. And I got all nostalgic so, with my time off SUPPOSEDLY for studying, I got stuck in. And, if I'm honest, I'm quite happy with it.

PLEASE tell me if I'm doing it wrong (you'll know better than I do), since I haven't been writing for a while, and I want to keep the storytime consistent.

THANK'OO = D

SchmEthan.


	10. Friendship

SchmEthan here:

Well. Some of you seemed to love that one. I only got a few reviews, but the number of favourites and followers has gone through the roof. I'd like to say a rather large THANK'OO to EVERYONE who's read this, who's believed in me and who thinks this is a DAMN good story. And it's actually going somewhere, I'm just not quite sure how yet.

But I'll think of something.

Enjoy!

SchmEthan.

* * *

The Doctor was in shock as he looked around the control room of the new TARDIS. It was more rectangular than his, and the white, hexagonal panels that bounded the room made it slightly smaller. The console was black with a dim red light pulsing from the controls and held a similarly coloured column which stretched halfway up to the ceiling. However, the first thing that the Time Lord noticed was the absence of the TARDIS's telepathy, coupled with the lack of light, aside from the console's dim red glow. _I should've felt the matrix by now... _he thought._ What's going on?_

"Another one?" asked Falco. "How many of these things are there?"

"There used to be millions," the Doctor recounted. "Billions even. But they're gone now. Every single one."

"If they're gone, why do you have one?" Fox wondered. "And why are we _in _one?"

The Doctor sighed. "They're gone because I destroyed them. All of them. I had to. But this one survived." The Doctor ran his hands down the side of his face. "But I should've known about it! _My _TARDIS should have picked it up the second it crashed! I don't understand..." Almost as soon as he'd spoken, he made a beeline for the console, reaching into his pocket for the sonic screwdriver. "Come on!" he encouraged, buzzing the device as he rapidly circled the console.

The other four could do nothing else but stand and watch the Doctor go about his business. Eventually, Falco spoke. "How'd this thing survive inside Solar? The Doc's TARDIS thi-"

"Doctor!" the Time Lord corrected, gritting his teeth as he continued his search.

With a sigh, Falco continued. "The _Doctor's _TARDIS needed that surfboard thing to get in here, right?"

"That was just so we could move around. A TARDIS could fall into a supernova and live."

"There doesn't appear to be much life in here..." Dave pointed out.

"That's just it. The crash can't have killed it. In fact, it _isn't _dead. Kill a TARDIS consciousness and you blow up yourself and take the universe with you. It's sleeping. Why, though? Is it recuperating after the crash? And where's the owner?"

Falco raised an eyebrow. "Again with the speaking too fast for anyone to understand," the avian chided.

Dave understood the Doctor's musings, and it made him think for a moment. "What if it didn't crash?"

Slippy's eyes widened as the same thought occurred to him. "What if someone put it here?"

"Ohh..." the Time Lord sounded. "'What if' indeed..." With another quick scan with the sonic screwdriver, he apparently began reading its information. "Oh..."

"What?" Fox asked, stepping forward. "What is it?"

"It was put here. And it's producing the Omega radiation."

Slippy looked almost exasperated. "But why? Why would it do that?"

The Doctor's look was now one of surprise as he leaned against the console. "'Cause its owner told it to. "

Following a brief period of silence, Dave gasped as he realised something. "Of course!" he yelled, almost prying his mind open as he ran his hands over his head. "Solar's been producing too much energy; it should be unstable. But it's not. The energy was going somewhere, but we couldn't figure it out."

"All of the excess energy is being converted to Omega radiation and being safely carried out of the Lylat system. He knew. Whichever Time Lord did this, he knew. And he made sure to protect his TARDIS, too."

"Hey, we got in without too much trouble," the avian piped up.

"No, it's not the getting _into _it..." The Time Lord turned to Fox, almost looking desperate. "Fox, that bioweapon you said you took down, what was it?"

Panicking, Fox began to trip over his words. "Um... it was... it-"

"It was a massive bug thing made of lava," Falco finished.

Fox shot the avian a look. "Yeah, that."

The Doctor pressed a few buttons on the console and, with aid from his sonic screwdriver, managed to display a picture on the monitor. It was tilted towards the Time Lord, so only he could see. "Did it look like this?" he asked.

A few moments passed before Fox took the first step towards the Doctor. Falco and Slippy followed, while Dave decided to stay where he was. When the trio had positioned themselves so they could see the screen, they were stunned.

"That's it," Fox managed to say, pointing at the screen with his muzzle agape.

"That was made by the TARDIS," the Doctor explained. "Using whatever she can find to protect herself and her function."

"It's a she?" Falco questioned disbelievedly.

"Yes it's a she!" The Time Lord retorted, furrowing its brow. "And she and my TARDIS happened to be very good friends."

"You know the owner?" Slippy asked.

"I do. Or at least I did," the Doctor admitted.

"Who?" Fox asked.

The Time Lord stared at the floor in rememberance of his good friend. "The Judge."

"Wait, the guy who helped build Dinosaur Planet?" Fox blurted.

"What?" Falco and Slippy yelled simultaneously.

"Oh, you haven't told them?" The Doctor wondered, looking up to face the vulpine. "I thought it was a good story. Especially the bit where you were talking ab-"

"I'll tell them later," Fox hurriedly interrupted, followed by a nervous chuckle.

"Doctor..." Dave called, looking out of the door and into the depths of Solar. "You said the TARDIS uses whatever she can find to protect herself."

"Yeah, she sends out all sorts of signals and telepathic-" The Time Lord stopped in his tracks as he realised why Dave was staring out of the door.

Dave turned to face the rest of the group, raw fear instilled in him. "Aparoids."

The members of Star Fox ran to the door to see, while the Doctor once again drew his sonic screwdriver and began pressing buttons around the console. "Telepathic orders, controlling the weakest and most convenient body it can find."

"But we destroyed the Aparoids!" Falco cried. "All of them! We shot that virus into the Queen."

"You only destroyed the entity that was controlling them. Now the TARDIS is the most powerful mind. And it's sending them after anything that puts its purpose in danger..." Immediately, the Time Lord ran to the door, looking over the heads of the others to see what was happening. Hundreds of small black specks were heading towards them, some close enough to see the singular pink eye on their bodies. "Time to go..."

The Doctor leapt out the door, apparently ignoring the rapid change in gravity and began pressing buttons on the Gravitron. As the others clambered out of the TARDIS, albeit with greater difficulty than the Doctor, they noticed that the Arwings had fallen from above them and had settled on the side of the box.

"Right," the Doctor began. "Fox, Falco, you two get out of here. It'll be easier to get you back in the TARDIS when we're _outside _Solar."

"Couldn't we just go back and land on the observation ship?" Falco suggested.

The Time Lord gave the avian a blank look. "Remind me: why were we running away from that ship very quickly, in the end having to resort to emergency teleporters to get us out?"

Falco was silent for a moment as he remembered the situation. "A lot can happen in a day..."

"How about we get ROB to send the Great Fox over here?" Fox proposed. "We can all land on it and move out from there."

"Good idea," said the Doctor. "Slippy, would you mind helping me again?"

The frog beamed. "Not at all, Doctor!" he confirmed.

"Excellent." The Doctor nodded to Fox. Returning the signal, Fox leapt into his Arwing, and closed the hatch, opening the comms. link to Falco, who was already raring to go. "Those Aparoids aren't gonna give us a headstart, you know."

The two Arwings zoomed off towards the surface of Solar, the Extrapolator shields separating with a wobble once again, while the others watched as the Doctor lifted the sonic screwdriver to the sky and buzzed it in the direction of his TARDIS. Aside from a small shake on its part, nothing happened. He turned towards Slippy. "Alright then, time to be a great help!"

Slippy's smile grew as he felt pride in his chest. "What do you need me to do, Doctor?"

"Sorry about this," the Time Lord apologised. Without warning, he ripped the Gravitron from the box, forced it into Slippy's hands and then threw him up in the air towards the TARDIS.

Dave looked on in shock as Slippy fell upwards, screaming at the abnormal gravity. While this happened, the he noticed that the box was beginning to sink beneath their feet. "Doctor, what's happening?" he asked worriedly.

"JUMP!" the Doctor yelled.

The primate thought it best to do what the Doctor told him. He jumped, and was perplexed when he found that he wasn't falling back down. He soon realised that he was falling towards Slippy, who had stopped screaming in favour of holding his mouth to contain the side affects of the gravity changes. The frog landed on the Police Box with a THUD, followed by the Doctor and Dave. "Slippy!" the Doctor called. "I need-" The Time Lord looked to find a new stain on the side of his TARDIS. He looked at the vomiting Slippy sympathetically. "Never mind."

He lifted the frog, looking even more green than usual, and he and Dave piled into the TARDIS. "Thank you, Slippy," he breathed, letting the frog slide down to the floor, taking the Gravitron from him. "Wonderfully done!"

Receiving only a groan in reply, the Doctor removed his overcoat and called out to Krystal and Ross, who he couldn't see behind the console. "Oi, you two! Doing alright?"

"Doctor..." came the worried reply from the vixen. "There's something wrong with Ross."

Immediately, Dave ran around to check on his boss. He was sprawled over the floor, sweating furiously. His eyes were darting everywhere as he mumbled the same words over and over again. "Doctor... TARDIS... Safe... Doctor..."

The Time Lord was concerned, but there was a bigger concern flying towards them at high speeds. Slippy managed to retain consciousness just long enough to yell "APAROIDS!" before passing out from all the abnormalities that he had experienced.

"We'll check Ross later," the Doctor promised. "We need to get back to the Great Fox now. Krystal, can you help me out here? Slippy appears to be unconscious."

Following a horrified stare at the Doctor for his disregard of her teammate, the vixen decided that it was probably best to comply. "What do you need?"

"I need a lock-on to ROB from your wrist comm. That alright?"

"Of course!" She complied, holding out her wrist.

The Doctor withdrew his sonic screwdriver, its buzzing causing Ross to writhe about on the floor while he scanned the wrist comm. When he had received the data he needed, he uttered a "Thank you" to Krystal before inputting the information into the TARDIS. "Keep Ross safe," he pleaded, as he flung the TARDIS through the time stream to safety.

* * *

"I think we're far enough away now," Fox suggested, checking his radar once again.

"Good," Falco breathed with a stretch, relaxing in his cockpit. "Nothin's about to ruin this trip!"

"I know, it's been so long since we've been flying like this. Just you and me, buddy!" Fox grinned as he remembered the sky trips they used to take when the pair were at the Academy together. They'd laugh, they'd sing, they'd talk, they'd drink. They were good memories for Fox.

"Oh, those were the days, man." A thought occurred to Falco, and a wry smile overcame him. "Hey, Fox. Since it's just you and me, y'know."

The vulpine squirmed in his seat. "I don't like the sound of that..."

"Oh come on," the avian said, enjoying the look of fear in his teammate's eyes. "What's the deal with Krystal? When are you gonna tell her how you feel?"

Fox's eyes widened at Falco's questions. "What are you- How did- I..." The vulpine's Arwing wobbled in its path slightly as he panicked and lost control, earning a roaring laugh from the avian.

"Fox, even I can see it. You're crazy about her! Jeez, it's no wonder you can hardly speak to her if you act like that!" He tried to stop laughing as the now crimson-faced Fox glared at him over the comms. screen, having steadied his craft.

"I actually _can _speak to her just fine!" Fox retorted defiantly.

"Not that I've ever seen," came the reply.

"That's cause you always march in and take the piss when I'm around her!"

"Only cause you start blushing like crazy! You should see yourself. I can't resist, you know that!"

"Yeah but I only start blushing 'cause..." Fox cut himself off. He'd said too much to the wrong person.

Falco grinned. "'Cause?"

The vulpine sighed. It was time. "Falco, she's brilliant. She's so happy and bubbly all the time. She smiles at everything, she never finds fault with anything, and she's _really _funny. She's a great girl."

"Not to mention smokin' hot!" the avian jested.

"Hey!" Fox growled over the comms. However, Falco was unfazed, and the vulpine eventually calmed down. "She's pretty. No... she's beautiful."

The avian said nothing for a moment. "You really mean that, man. That's deep."

"Yeah it is," the vulpine replied with a smirk.

"So, you like her? I reckon you do." Falco's eyes widened as he realised something rather important. "Fox, do you-"

The avian was interrupted by the sound of tearing metal and shattering glass. He instinctively checked his systems. Everything was fine. But not on Fox's ship. Falco's flying brain kicked into gear as he banked hard to the left and sailed downwards towards the vulpine's plummeting Arwing. "No, no, no!" Falco yelled. Gritting his teeth, he accelerated towards his friend. "Come on!"

Fox was struggling to retain control of his Arwing. His right arm had been torn by the glass from his hatch, rendering one of his controls essentially useless. The right-hand G-diffuser had been almost ripped from the wing, and the vulpine was falling in a spiral, unable to pull upwards due to his injury. He struggled to turn the ship about and try and lose whatever it is that just attacked him. He painfully looked over his shoulder and found himself staring at an Aparoid, its eye drilling into his mind. He screamed and jerked the controls widly, trying desperately to shake off the nightmare. The Aparoid crawled over the canopy towards the Arwing's fuselage. Fox readied his paw on the firing mechanism. Just a little bit more to the left and he'd have a direct hit.

Another crash behind him flung his body into the controls, causing all sorts of flashes and noises that merged and morphed into senses that Fox could no longer comprehend. He knew that it was pointless to try to fly to safety. He knew that it was over. His head felt as if it was melting and his arm seared in pain. His ears were ringing, his hands were heating up as the controls shorted out. It was over.

Falco spotted Fox's craft and the two Aparoids that were leeching onto it. "NO!" he cried, diving towards it. Other Aparoids were falling from above them to leech off the Arwing's resources, but he picked them off with ease. He checked the state of Fox's craft on his own computers. He saw that the body of the Arwing was damaged. Normally, the frequency of his lasers would have been cancelled out by an electric field within the body of the craft, but now that it had been torn, the circuit had been broken. He'd have to be careful. He drew closer, still accelerating, while aiming carefully at the Aparoid. He slowly squeezed the trigger, beads of sweat falling from his brow. He'd better not miss.

Fox thought he heard the sound of a laser shot. He felt the plummeting ship rumble. He wondered what was going on. But he couldn't make sense of it. None of it. He was dying; he didn't need to make sense of it. But one name seeped through his chaotic head. One name that soothed him. One name that made everything alright.

_Krystal..._

"Come on!" Falco yelled, as he successfully shot the second Aparoid off Fox's Arwing without hitting him. He managed to draw level with his teammate. There was blood splattered on the outside of the canopy and he could see his teammate in the cockpit barely moving. Grimacing, he piloted his craft beneath Fox's and pulled sharply up. The extra pressure was slowly destroying his ship, but it was saving Fox's. He yelled as a multitude of warnings flashed on his controls. There was no way out of this. The energy was slowly draining from both of the ships. The Extrapolators wouldn't last much longer.

"Fox... I'm sorry..." Falco sobbed, still trying in vain to save his friend. It was hopeless. They were both going to die.

"Hey..." came the weak reply through the crackling comms. "You tried."

"You could've helped a l-little more," Falco half laughed, choking on his emotions.

"Oh shut up..." The vulpine groaned. "We're going down, aren't we?" he asked, still unaware of anything other than his best friend's voice.

"Like you wouldn't believe..." came the defeated reply. "I'm sorry, man."

"It's not your fault," Fox reassured with a cough. "The Aparoids didn't tear your Arwing to bits, did they?"

"Well, no. But-" A small light flashed on Falco's control board. He checked its status. He paused for a moment. "But promise me one thing."

Fox groaned as Falco stopped pulling the ship up, apparently allowing it to fall. "Anything."

"When we get back, tell Krystal you love her."

Fox thought Falco's words through for a moment. "What?"

With a smirk, the avian activated both crafts' emergency teleports. The pre-teleport program made its usual whirring noise, prompting a smile and a groan from the vulpine. "You di-"


	11. Energy

SchmEthan here:

Wow. It's been over a year since I've updated this. But surprisingly, it's still getting a lot of attention! For a couple of weeks, I've been getting favourites and follows, and I'm very impressed. Therefore, I decided to churn out another update!

A lot has happened in the year and a bit since I updated this. I'm nineteen now. I've moved away from home to the middle of London. I've just finished my first year in university. I have a 9 to 5.30 summer job.

And I'm having a fantastic time.

One of the main reasons that I wrote fanfiction initially was the large amount of time I spent watching TV and playing video games, and also due to my small amount of friends. I would write about all these fantastic adventures and interesting lives, while leading a boring and friendless one in reality. I wrote about love and friendship because I didn't have it. But that changed; I played games like Star Fox less and less, I somehow managed to get a girlfriend (three since then, in fact) and I've had less time to myself for writing. I've also had to become more independent and sensible.

I've had to grow up...

I still enjoy writing, but I would rather spend the little free time I have outside or doing something worthwhile. However, thanks to the wondrous advancements of technology, I've been able to write this chapter on my phone! (= D)

And so. I bring to you a much coveted and very rare Paradoxial update. And I _promise _that I will _try _to _attempt_ to write another soon. I _really _want to finish this story, cause the ending's gonna be AWESOME! (I may be older, and I may have become a LITTLE more sensible, but OMG IT'S SPECTACULAR REALLY YOU SHOULD READ IT. When I'm done writing it, obviously.)

Hope you enjoy it.

If you wanna see more, reviews and favs spur me on!

Here we go.

SchmEthan.

* * *

The TARDIS gently pulsed into view on the bridge of the Great Fox before the Doctor rushed outside, scanning the room for ROB.

"That was fast," ROB informed him, almost sounding impressed.

Krystal was next out of the Police Box. "I suppose we didn't have to fly."

"Time elapsed between departure and arrival: ten minutes," the robot clarified.

Confusion swept over her face. "ROB, we've been gone for hours. We went to the observation deck. We went _into _Solar."

Ever defiant, ROB continued his assertion. "My greentium sub-atomic clock is accurate to one yoctosecond in one hundred and eighty six point four billion years. You have been gone for ten minutes and thirty six point nine three five five seven eight two four zero four-"

"But we _haven__'__t_! I know time elapses faster on Solar, but not _that _fast."

All the while, the Doctor was observing their argument with a grin on his face. The vixen noticed this, and suspected that something was up. She sighed as she realised her mistake "Let me guess: time travel?"

"Cor-rect," the Time Lord confirmed. "This way, we'll be able to get the Great Fox over to Solar before we've even left!"

The TARDIS door opened again as Slippy stumbled out, looking rather unwell.

"And it may give Slippy here more time to recover!"

The frog groaned. "Arwings are bad enough, but I'm not built for time travelling spaceships and gravity generators. My stomach..." He proceeded to find a suitable spot in the corner of the room and collapsed.

"Right then," the Doctor continued, as if nothing had happened. "Let's get this ship moving! If you would, ROB?" He stepped aside to allow the robot to pass.

"Right away," came the reply as ROB headed for the controls. "Warp gates ready in T minus thirty seconds."

There was an audible wail from Slippy, who was greatly upset by the news of more stomach churning transport.

The Doctor chuckled. "Hang in there, Slip!"

A large rippling circle of green energy began to form in front of the Great Fox. It increased in diameter until it was nearly twice the length of the ship. The Time Lord shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked forward on his feet. "Entanglement warping! I like it. Very retro."

ROB began to power up the ship's huge engines, and the vessel started slowly moving forwards. "Entering warp field," he informed the small crew.

Slippy shut his eyes tightly as sparks burst from the hull of the ship, the gravity increasing slightly as they entered the portal. The Doctor and Krystal steadied themselves as the green field passed over the front window, revealing a whole new section of space, with Solar dominating their vision. ROB left, informing the crew that he was going to regulate the flux capacitors, which intrigued the Doctor. Many people thought that flux capacitors were used for time travel, thanks to a series of old Earth films, but in reality, they were used to control the lights in the time machine. He decided to leave the robot to it, and stayed with the remainder of Star Fox. To the frog's relief, the ordeal was over after a couple of minutes. He elected to stay in his curled up position even after the ship had come to a standstill.

"Now we wait for the boys to get back!" The Doctor wandered towards Slippy and gently tapped him with his foot. The frog simply rolled over. "Feeling better?"

"A little," Slippy replied, before hoisting himself to his feet with the Doctor's help. "I think I'll stay out of my Arwing for a while after this adventure."

"Probably for the best," the Doctor said with a grin. He turned to face Krystal. "Any sign of Fox and Falco yet?"

"Not yet," Krystal replied. She stared out into the warm glow of Solar. Fox was still in there, and so were the Aparoids. "I hope they're okay..."

A minute elapsed in silence before the controls buzzed to life and began relaying data about the two familiar ships that had just entered communications range. Initially, Krystal reacted with a relief, scurrying to the relevant section of the console. She was followed by the Doctor, who moved at a more leisurely pace. He could see here ears fall flat against her head as she took in the information, and frowned. "Is something up?"

"Fox's ship is severely damaged, and Falco's is starting to fail too!" Suddenly, a red light appeared beside the vulpine's readings, accompanied by a siren. "Oh no!" Krystal cried sharply.

The Doctor swiftly moved beside the vixen and checked the readings himself. "They're not gonna make it out of there," he realised. "Is there anything we can do?"

"The emergency teleports are working, but they're still really far away. I don't know if they'll survive it." Krystal could feel her stomach drop at the thought of losing her teammates.

"They're not going to last more than a minute in there in their current state," said the Doctor, calculating velocities and heat transfer in his head. "If there's any chance that the teleports might work, we have to take it."

"It could kill them!"

The Doctor unintentionally raised his voice. "But they'll die if you don't!"

Krystal stared at the Doctor in horror. She knew had to try, but she didn't want to take the risk. Closing her eyes, she turned to the console and activated the teleport system. "One of them still has to activate it in the Arwings. All up to them now."

Even with his limited telepathy, the Doctor could feel Krystal's worry and anger and sadness seeping through. He put a hand on her shoulder, which appeared to ease the feelings a little. Slippy waddled up beside the Doctor, having heard the situation, and wrapped his short arms around the Time Lord's leg. The trio waited in silence for any communication from the pair, whose stats were declining rapidly.

Krystal could hear the Doctor and Slippy's mental calls for Fox and Falco, and she added her own, in vain hope of helping them.

A small PING from the console roused the trio from their stupor as the all looked at the screen. Falco had accepted the teleports, and they were starting to transport. The lights in the bridge dimmed and the Great Fox's humming slowed as massive amounts of energy were being routed to the teleporter to drag the two ships through the swirling mass of Solar and back to safety. There was a huge CRASH as the lights and sounds of the ship returned to normal.

"Fox!" cried Krystal as she sprinted towards the garage, with the Doctor and Slippy following close behind. They ran past the TARDIS, forgetting about the two primates who were still inside.

* * *

Fox's last syllable was drowned out by the piercing sound of the overloaded teleporter, straining to transport the craft and their pilots through such an energy-rich medium. Falco gritted his teeth as the craft landed in a dischord of scraping metal and discharging energy in the garage of the Great Fox. Fox cried out as his Arwing scraped off the top of Falco's, pain jolting through his open wound, and crumpled to the floor as Krystal, Slippy and the Doctor came running into the hangar. Krystal's mind was immediately buffeted by the pain that Fox was in, only just hearing Falco's unspoken but growing concern for his teammate. Horrified, she immediately ran towards the Arwings, while Slippy fetched the first aid kit. The Doctor sprinted over to the lower Arwing to help free Falco. He pulled the twisted wing of Fox's craft off the avian's canopy and grunted as he heaved the hatch open, with Falco pushing up from beneath to aid him. After he had been freed, they helped Krystal pull Fox out of his cockpit, which had a large chunk missing from its side. The gently lowered their captain to the floor, where he lay motionless.

"Fox! Fox, are you alright?!" Krystal exclaimed, clearly panicked. Blood was spurting from his arm, and she could see the mangled pink flesh beneath his bright orange fur. When he didn't respond, tears started forming in her eyes while the rest of the team gathered around him. Slippy squeezed through the group with a bandage and gloves, held the line's injured arm up, and began wrapping the wound.

There was silence save for the rustle of the bandage as the frog finished wrapping Fox's arm. The blood flow reduced almost instantly. He held the vulpine's arm above his body, having to stand on his toes to do so, until the Doctor intervened and relieved Sloppy of his task. Letting go, he looked down at his fallen friend, unable to say anything.

"There's a pulse," the Time Lord declared. "And I think he's still breathing."

"But that was a huge teleport distance," Falco observed. "I'm still feeling dizzy from it, and I haven't been losing blood."

Slippy squirmed at the thought of his teammate's mind being scrambled. "What if he doesn't wake up?"

"Don't you DARE say that!" Krystal screamed, taking everyone aback. "I won't lose him. I can't lose him!" She turned to face her captain, tears forming in her perfect eyes. The others could only look on in shock and admiration as she leaned over the vulpine. "Fox..." she sighed. The rest of the world was insignificant, and all she could see was her orange-furred hero lying still on the floor in front of her.

"Please wake up," she pleaded softly. "I don't think you know how much you mean to me. If you don't wake up, I-" She held back a sob before continuing. "If you don't wake up, I don't know what I'll do." She closed her eyes. If he really wasn't going to make it, she wanted him to know how she felt about him. "I love you, Fox. I love you more than anything. Don't go."

When she received no immediate reply, she lay across the vulpine's chest and began to cry quietly. The others instinctively took a step back from the pair.

"Well, that makes my job a lot easier," came a deep, crackling voice from beneath Krystal. "Oh, my head..."

She gasped, sat up, and opened her eyes to see a smile form across the vulpine's face. His eyes slowly started to open, his pupils swiftly contracting in the light to reveal the emerald green irises. He turned to face Krystal, the smile developing into a grin. "I love you too, Krys."

Without warning, Krystal threw herself on top of her captain, being careful not to squeeze him too much, given his current state. After an initial shock and a jolt of pain up his arm, Fox winced a little before wrapping both his arms around the vixen and stroking her fur.

After a few moments of silence, Krystal released her grip and sat up. Fox managed to pull himself up into a sitting position through gritted teeth. He smiled at Krystal again before turning to his avian teammate. "Happy, Falco?" he asked with a smirk.

"You bet," came the reply, with much relief.

"I'm so glad you're alright, Fox!" said Slippy. "What happened?"

"The Aparoids caught up with us. They were clever, though; they didn't show up on our scanners at all!"

The Doctor stroked his chin. "If the Judge's TARDIS _is_ controlling them, then it'll have detected your Arwings as hostile when they'd landed close to it. The Aparoids knew exactly how to evade your shields.

"I still don't understand how they got to us so quickly!" Fox wondered aloud. "We were really deep into the core!"

"It's a time machine; it could see you were coming, and prepared itself. It even sent one after me before I'd even arrived!"

"But what about the Aparoid on the observation deck?" asked Falco.

"It was there before we arrived. You saw it kill Gary!" The Time Lord paused for a moment as he thought. "But it must've been on that ship for quite a while before we got there. That can't be right."

By now, Fox was able to stand up with Krystal's help. Even after he had been pulled up, the pair's paws remained together. This made the Doctor smirk a little.

"What's not right about it?" Fox asked, still smiling a little at the novelty of holding paws with Krystal.

"Gary, Dave and Ross were doing more meddling than we were, and Gary was killed because of it. But that Aparoid was clever. You saw it trying different ways to get into the bridge."

"If it was so clever," Slippy began, "why didn't it just kill all of them?"

"Exactly," said the Doctor. "I think we need to ask those two a few questions." He paused for a moment. "Are those two still in the TARDIS?"

"Yeah," Slippy confirmed. "Dave said he wanted to stay and look after Ross. He was doing that thing where he goes all distant and starts muttering about you and the TARDIS."

The Doctor froze. Ideas and scenarios and evidence flashed in front of his memory, slotting themselves into place. Within seconds, he'd come up with a possible explanation for all of the events so far. "Oh no."

"Doctor?" Krystal asked, squeezing Fox's paw tighter.

Before he could answer, he had already turned heel and run out of the hangar. Falco rolled his eyes and followed, with Slippy in tow. The vulpine looked up from the floor and smiled. The vixen mirrored it and added a giggle. They had both dreamt of the day they'd admit their feelings to each other. It hadn't quite transpired as either of them had thought, but they didn't mind at all. Krystal paused for a moment, then gave Fox a quick peck on the muzzle. He let out a nervous laugh and began to turn his trademark shade of red once more. Krystal couldn't help but laugh at him; even after knowing that she loved him, he was still nervous around her. Fox returned the kiss, to Krystal's delight, and the pair made their way to the TARDIS as swiftly as Fox was able, paws still inseperable.

* * *

The vulpine and the vixen caught up with the rest of the group as they arrived back at the TARDIS. The Doctor had just opened the door, and Falco and Slippy had followed him inside. As Fox stepped into the ship, he spotted Dave kneeling next to Ross, who was lying on the floor convulsing.

"He's just started spasming!" Dave said with worry. "I didn't know where you were. What should I do?"

The Doctor was instantly beside the two primates, reaching into his pocket for the Sonic Screwdriver. He scanned Ross's body as it was shaking. "It's his head. It's overflowing!"

"What?" Dave asked. "How?"

Just then, a small silver fob watch fell out of Ross's pocket. "I knew it!" the Doctor yelled. "Did you know about the watch, Dave?"

He stared at the watch. "I... I think I've seen it before, but I didn't think anything of it!"

"It's got a perception filter. Ross won't have noticed it. Maybe you were affected by it too."

"Is the watch really that important?" asked Falco. "'Cause he's kind of still having a fit."

"Yes. It explain why we found the TARDIS abandoned in the middle of Solar."

"What do you mean?" Dave inquired.

"I think I've found the Judge."

"What?!" yelled Fox, stepping forward. "_He__'__s _the Judge? But you said he was a Time Lord!"

The Time Lord picked up the fob watch. "This is part of a machine called the Chameleon Arch. It can change a Time Lord into any species, and stores the memories and original biological data in here. If he hadn't changed himself, I would have been able to detect his Time Lord brain." He turned back towards the orang-utan. "But something's not right. His memories are seeping through, and it's too much for his brain in this state. I think the Arch is breaking down!"

"What does that mean?" Slippy asked.

"I don't know, I've only used it once before."

Dave was struggling to hold the orang-utan down. "Just help him!" he yelled. "Now!"

The Doctor looked at the piece of silver technology in his hand. He struggled to place it in Ross's shaking paw. "You know what to do."

The seizing didn't subside, but the orang-utan somehow managed to open the face of the watch. The yellow light poured out and made it's way towards Ross's head, where it seemed to hover.

"Come on!" The Doctor encouraged it. Nothing happened for a few moments, then there was a sudden flash of bright yellow light, causing everyone to cover their eyes. As the flash subsided, they could see that Ross had stopped shaking, but the yellow cloud still floated above his head.

"Has he changed?" Krystal asked, expecting to feel more of a consciousness from a Time Lord.

"No," the Doctor replied with urgency in his voice. "He's still an orang-utan."

"If he hasn't changed," began Dave, "then where's all that energy going to go? An entire biological imprint has a lot of information, and if all that energy is manifesting itself into light and matter, it can't just sit around the air, it'd be unstable. It'd have to be inside a head, or some sort of psychic container. I assume that watch uses some sort of neural infastructure to hold the passive-"

The Time Lord turned sharply turned to face Dave and interrupted him. "You know too much. You're too clever. You _can't _be that clever!" He felt angry at the thought of losing another Time Lord, and Dave seemed to be a linking factor. "How can you know so much?!"

"I don't know, Doctor!" Dave yelled back, frustrated. "All my life I've been told I'm clever, but I just don't know why! I see things that would never occur to other people, I see the way things should turn out, and the way things will happen with the simplest, most single events. Even though I can seem to predict the future, I have no memories of more than five years ago. None. Explain _that_ to me, Doctor!"

The Doctor stared in disbelief. Before he could say anything, the yellow cloud flew straight past both of their heads, pushing them backwards, and surrounded the console. The TARDIS started humming as the time rotors started up.

"No no no no!" the Doctor screamed, launching himself at the console. Before he'd even made contact, he was thrown backwards in a flash of light. Falco and Slippy immediately ran after him to help him up.

"Doctor, what's going on?!" Fox yelled.

"Dave's right," came the Time Lord's reply. "That consciousness isn't going to last long without a container. The Arch is broken, and Ross's body can't hold the imprint, so it's trying to get to safety, back to somewhere it can live."

"Where's it going to find that?" Krystal asked.

"Gallifrey," the Doctor replied. "But Gallifrey is gone, it's been time locked. Nothing can get in or out. If that consciousness tries to fly us in there, we'll be sucked right into the time vortex."

"Well do something!" Falco yelled, staying defiant as the TARDIS started rocking back and forth, the blue colums sliding in and out of each other.

"I can't, it's taken over the controls." The Time Lord tried to move towards the console, but was held back against the railings by the invisible force. "I can't stop it!"

Suddenly, Krystal's eyes closed. "Yes?" she said, seemingly unprompted.

Fox looked worried. "Krystal, who are you talking to?"

The vixen ignored him, and continued her monologue. "Who are you?"

"Krystal?" the Doctor said cautiously. Sparks came shooting out of the walls and the console as red lights and sirens emitted from the console.

"Alright, what do I have to do?" Nobody said anything as they waited for the vixen to say more. "But the Doctor tried, and he- Alright. I will." Immediately, she ran towards the TARDIS console, with her arm outstretched.

"Krystal, no!" Fox yelled, running to try and stop her. There was a flash of light and Fox's body was repelled and thrown back towards Falco. The avian was able to steady himself and pull Fox up, despite the TARDIS rocking even more.

The vixen was surprised to find that she was not forced away like Fox and the Doctor. Her eyes tightly shut, she let the trustworthy entity guide her to specific controls. It felt like her decisions were being fought off and her actions being countered, but she persisted.

"How is she doing that?" Slippy wondered in awe.

"I think the TARDIS is helping her take control! Go on, girl!" the Doctor rallied his ship. "You can do it!"

Falco raised an eyebrow. "So you're telling me that the TARDIS is talking to Krystal inside her head?"

"Yes."

The avian shrugged. "I don't think I can be any more surprised today," he conceded.

Krystal was moving faster and faster around the console, and the TARDIS was jerking violently as two sets of conflicting commands were issued to it. She was flicking switches and pulling levers almost as expertly as the Doctor. Krystal seemed to stop for a moment, before reaching for the handbrake. "Brace yourselves!" she yelled, before yanking on the lever.

The TARDIS tilted sharply, the time engines groaning with the strain of such a sudden stop. Even with the handbrake on, Krystal was still trying to move the TARDIS away from its intended destination. Fox, Falco, Slippy, Dave, Ross and the Doctor were all flung helplessly around the room as fires spontaneously erupted around the console.

With one last effort, Krystal flicked two switches and pulled a lever before letting go of the console completely. There was a blinding flash of light, and everyone was buffeted back by a huge wave of energy from the console. The TARDIS's occupants were thrown wildly around the room, landing uncomfortably on the grating. Each of them struggled to retain their consciousness as they felt it being suppressed by something. The last thing the Doctor heard before the black silence overwhelmed him was the ominous pealing of the Cloister Bell.

* * *

SchmEthan here:

Yeah.

What did you think of THAT?

I decided to start trying to draw all these plot strings together and start wrapping up. I'd like to see where you guys think this is gonna go... Don't put it in the reviews in case you spoil it for others, but if you DO want to try guessing the plot developments in my miraculous brain, go ahead and PM me!

And I'm VERY aware that the quality of writing of the previous chapters is dire. If I have some spare time, I may possibly go through and get rid of all the grammatical slime and make the story nice and shiny and readable ^^

If you want more MAKE SOME NOISE and I'll definitely try. And I'll watch a few Tenth Doctor episodes to get my brain in gear.

Sorry for the long delay between the updates. I'll try to be better.

Bye bye for now!

SchmEthan. (Ethan)


End file.
